The future of electronic entertainment issue#ss

Inside: the trouble with PlayStation2 = developers tell ай

2 laa

Plus: Time Splitters, Jet Set Radio, Lotus Team Challenge, Eii:

X-Box: from dream to reality

How Microsoft created its PlayStation2 killer

-

entem ppp

The future of electronic entertainment

| | ow well do you remember October 1993, when a H new videogame magazine called Edge first hit the newsstands? It was an unusual piece of work, infamously iden ood. = face aimed not at everyone but at a select audience who mos understood just how wondrous a pursuit e-entertainment was, a bunch of different individuals who, in the years since, have seen their interests jumped upon, rebranded and repackaged, and sold off down the river to the masses, You've seen brave new formats arrive and pass without even politely offering up any memories that might stay with you in the same way your first sight of Doom or Super Mario 54 forever will (look, we're genuinely sorry for encouraging Issue 88, September 2000 anyone to buy into either 3DO or Jaguar). You've seen the multimedia revolution promised and royally messed up, only to now witness Sony attempt to resurrect it with the advent of PlayStation2. You've watched, helplessly, as Sega has turned from e-entertainment's 'coolest' brand into something the general public seems to be doing its best to ignore. Hell, you've even seen Rise Of The Robots on the cover of Edge. This truly is an odd business. And it is a Dusiness of change. Next year, a winner will be found in the race for console graphical supremacy, giving designers, artists and technicians the opportunity to stop, look around, and think not about how many polygons there are onscreen, but why they exist there at all. Crucially, e-entertainment will soon be as much about what happens outside of the box as well as inside it. Within three years, Sony, currently the industry's most serious player, will be throwing movies and music down a pipe into your living room via your PlayStation2. And the company's network proposal represents a paradigm shift in the gaming process. Multiplayer Chu-Chu Rocket via a 33.6K modem? Yes, that's quite enough. of that, thank you very much. As Sony puts its delivery framework In place, Microsoft will be splashing out half a billion dollars like a high roller in Vegas in an effort to carve a canyon-wide niche for itself. Just one year ago, who could have foreseen the creator of some of the world's most reviled software being now poised to offer a dynamic, genuinely viable platform in the videogaming hardware market? In recognition of all this change, Edge has got there first by reinventing itself. However, the magazine you hold in your hands is but a stepping stone. Edge Online, launching in September, will allow you to consume Edge's unique brand of journalism via a different portal. Reader interaction will be encouraged, and by being а part of it you will find yourself in a position to get closer to videogames, even communicating directly with the people responsible for making the pastime the phenomenon it is. Pardon the reference, but to paraphrase an old line, the future of electronic entertainment is almost here...

EDGE

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Issue one, October 1993

ETA ип « 003 2

044 Time Splitters The ex-GoldenEye team delivers firstperson shooting, PS2 style

058 Playing cards When developers go to test: software meets PC 3D hardware at WGDC

064 Territorial advantage Edge looks at the unusual process of tailoring games for different audiences

070 X-Box From concept to console contender: the full story from the Microsoft team

078 The new language The 75 terms and phrases that will define the future of e-entertainment

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People on Edge Tony Moll oiis

Jobo Sanches deputy odii

James Delling producten edio Ste Curran aine

Darid McCarty eve

Mart Watbank writer

Christophe Kagokani tokyo Dureau

Татту Stokas ii aihir Darren Phillips deputy ari сасы

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Prescreen

032 No One Lives Forever (PC) 034 Star Trek: Invasion! (PS) 036 Aiken's Artifact (PC) 037 . Red(PS2)

038 Wipeout Fusion (PS2) 038 GT2000 (PS2)

039 ESPN IT&F2 (PS2)

039 185 (Р52)

040 Mr Driller 2 (coin-op) 040 Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2) 041 100 Swords (DC)

041 5ірһееа 2 (PS2)

042 Mario Story (N64)

042 Incredible Crisis (PS) Desperados (PC)

Seven Blades (PS2)

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the squarer issue

Every month 006 Frontend

News and views from e-entertainment’s cutting edge 020 Out there

Including Soundbytes and Web site of the month 024 RedEye

Commentary from inside the videogame industry 026 Trigger Happy

Columnist Steven Poole considers characterisation 028 Profile

dge catches up with Climax's Gary Liddon

052 Inside...

Kuju Entertainment reveals a very British driving game 146 Codeshop

Tracking developments in videogame development 152 The making of...

lan Bell and David Braben tell the story behind Elite 156 FAQ

With Lara's father, Confounding Factor’s Toby Gard 156 Reset

A look back at Edge five years ago, plus Pixel Perfect 158 inbox

Complaints, despair, joy and more in your letters 162 Next month Testscreen 092 Jet Set Radio (DC) 094 Virtua Tennis (DC) 096 Deus Ex (PC) 098 Legend of Dragoon (Ps) 100 TOCA World Touring Cars (PS) 102 Grand Prix 3 (PC) 104 Shutokou Battle 2 (DC) 105 Street Fighter Ill: 3rd Strike (DC) 106 Diablo II (PC) 107 Infestation (PC) 108 Spider-Man (PS) 109 Kiss Psycho Circus (PC) 109 Carmageddon TDR 2000 (PC) 110 Vib Ribbon (PC) 110 Ray Crisis (PS)

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WE the most successful console launch ever in Japan under its belt

апа ar icipation growing among gamers

n Europe and the US eager to get thei

hands on Sony's next-generation console

Sony could be forgiven for thinking that it has the next-generation console war sewn up. Criticisms regarding PS2's graphical nuances have done little to hamper sales of the unit — it has now clocked up three million sales in its nome territory – Dut genuine concerns are beginning to surface. Hardware sales remain strong, but software sales are sluggish, and there confusion surrounding the European

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form of boarded-up shopfronts. but the their unit after July 9 in the US will receive

strong impact that Sony's console has had t at launch. In the UK, retailers were on DVD sales — which have tripled since it nitially concerned by Sony's planned

aunched — would appear to indicate that a preorder-based allocation procedure

slowdown in PlayStation? software sales is While Sony has caved in to pressure and

a more localised problem. The volume of declared that there will be inventory made

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game software sold is now lower than the available for shop shelves, its decision to

that of the console units themselves, and a take orders directly online may still cause

killer title can expect to sell in the region of unease among independent retailers

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just 600,000 copies, a relatively meagre Then there are the well-voiced

The volume of game software sold is now lower than that of the console unit itself

number, and one that will not provide cii і ring f rammers satisfactory returns for its publisher. By and their struggles to get the bes

Way of example, Final Fantasy IX will have * e ) үе architecture 0 sell 1.6m copies to break even, an Alt jl tial j ig 3

the first timê ever Square has taken the perhaps better ascribed to the pressing jecision not to attend the Tokyo Game weed for new content that Internet

show 2000 this autumn. More alarming editors find themselves under, developers for Sony is talk of a significant number are voicing more substantial anxieties

of developers which, concerned by A leading developer, who declined to Sony's multimedia diversification апа be named, points to bandwidth issues, low software sales, are turning their for example, which inhibit the polygon

attention towards Nintendo's Dolphin pushing power of the console: "If you re

going real textured polygon triangles

Difficulties at retail? with a bit of extra stuff, then we're talking

i,

In Europe and the US, Sony’s launch plans somewnere between ten to 15 million

are proceeding apace, though not very triangles; 12 million is the figure we tend

smoothly. Electronics Boutique is refusing to use as a rule of thumb. [he Gs

Since launch, the release rate of new PS2 titles in Japan has reduced to a trickle, with scant few titles even worthy of consideration. Metal Gear Solid 2 continues to offer the clearest indication of what the platform is capable of, but of course it will not be ready for PAL launch

New PS2 kit arrives

Realtime digital content creator unveiled at New Orleans show

sony unveiled its new GScube development system in New Orleans at the SIGGRAPH 2000 International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, which

ran from July 23-28. Essentially, the development system consists of an enhanced PlayStation2 that boasts

16 sets of graphics units featuring an updated Graphics Synthesizer with an embedded frame buffer memory

of 32Mb (eight times that of the standard PlayStation2). The system

is designed to enabie realtime digital content creation for ecinema and other applications. Sony showed several technology demos with partners, including Criterion Software, which demonstrated its HenderWare3 nteractive 3D graphics middleware

doing just about anything you can throw at it ~ there's i rt never a bandwidth

problam oroblem is pushing the

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question of the DMA bus bandwidth and then what you decide to do with

пе VU1. As soon as you do that then you start hitting other bandwidth issues, so it's a real balancing issue and it's actually quite à complex problem, to

"Having five processors is not that uncommon — it’s been that way since the Amiga days - but they're much more complex, and understanding how to use them well is the challenge"

With more than 50 titles slated for release at launch, there is currently little infarmation regarding which titles will actually be available on October 26, though western gamers can rest assured that there won't be a proliferation of Mah Jong titles. Likely candidates so far include Ridge Hacer V, Tekken Tag Tournament (which will feature a one-on-one mode), Theme Park World, Oni, FIFA 2001 MLS, Madden NFL 2001, Super Snowboarding X, F1 Racing Championship, Wetrix 2, plus (above, from left) ESPN International Track & Field, ISS Soccer, ESPN X Games Snowboarding. Formula 1 2000, (right group, clockwise from top left) Gradius Ill & IV, Silent Scope, Fantavision (which will be released with a twoplayer mode), Smuggler's Run, Midnight Club, and Time Splitters, with the latter showing the most promise of all titles (see p44)

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Edges source, "it's been that way

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them well is the challenge.

Scaling the coding curve

But in the context of poor software sales

developers need to scale steep learning curves with little room for error. Ir particular, the management of the vector units requires a lot of learning, and not just from developers who aren't used to working so close to the metal

"There's a sort of flywheel effect with VUT," reveals Edge's source, "in that setting the damn thing up to go fast is costly, keeping It going very fast is pretty easy, but then you use a lot when you re running down. So making sure that your datas set up to nave the key structure so hat you can get very high performance is мегу important. And learning how to do

that :s not something we got on to with

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techniques," believes Edge's source, “and you'll just see games which are much, mucn пспег visually, and you wouldnt jet that ricnness unless you use these echnigques. You'll see some of these i520 on aur me on game s. and

re on our second gene on of titles,”

There is a danger that this complexity Will drive developers towards an over-

reliance on middieware, which can also

—

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nave disadvantages. “When you re building a generic engine," says Ёадез source, "like Hengerware for example, then you are imposing a certain style

of solution on people, and however programmable and however much you can change it and however flexible It is, you're still imposing a structure and suggesting a solution. If you get bound by that you won't reach the absolute optimal peak for a particular game genre You'll get competent titles, and probably, for this generation, you'll get a competitive title, but | don t think you'll learn enough from for the next generation. When you're designing à

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can decide the exact optimal thing: we'll

use VUO for this bit of the graphics, an A Tuc We re mot USING it ue j a something else, so we can make use оғ the chip perfectly for a particular

T س‎ o ب‎ ч T al is 2 valla task. You're just losing all that flexibility

architecture has resulted in developers failing ta utilise the console's unique potential, which in turn has Contributed to a попоп sottware market in Japan Despite the ppm glory of Meta! Gear Cru 2 с acnine “агы 11] ЗОН =, Son new Machine сапу. Sill

has а long way to go before it

Jelivers what was once promised

"Our experience, as well as that of all the developers that we've talked with, is that it is a difficult system to program for. You are basically building from scratch to a complicated arrangement of chipsets. You wind up spending a lot of time and money in areas that you expected to be available in basic hardware functionality and dev system tools.

“| don't think it's any surprise that software sales have slowed down after the Japanese launch. Just look at the titles that have been released. They were far from impressive relative to public expectations of the system. Powerful hardware means nothing in the absence of great software."

Lorne Lanning, Oddworld Inhabitants

“I think a lot of developers have had problems because they tried to port over their PC engines and found that you need to do things in a fundamentally different way on the PS2. Sure, it's difficult to program for, but if that bothers you, you're in the wrong job. You should be programming for a bank.

Or maybe Web sites.

“I've really enjoyed programming for PS2, Having started with absolutely no tools or engine code, we've been able to make every decision based on what would be best for a PS2 game, and | think the results speak for themselves.

"Given the complexity of the hardware, it will take time

before people produce games that do the system justice." Steve Ellis,

Free Radical Design

"So far everything has appeared to be quite good, and, considering the negative rumours we had heard before we got one, we have been reasonably impressed with it. However, we have only just started with it, so | wouldn't want to get too optimistic yet. *The PS2 will be successful and | wouldn't read too much into the current sales figures in Japan." Matthew Gabriel, Brain In A Jar

"The PS2 is going back to the older days of programming games, where the developer is really going to have to understand the hardware and the tricks needed to get the very best out of it. That's not going to happen too quickly. So, apart from the Sony- developed games, which

will have a headstart on everything else, it will be

the second- and even third- generation products that will really show off the power of the system. And in the meantime the PC and the X-Box are making rapid advances in power. The new graphics cards and the new processors for next year will enable the PC to do so much more than the PS2. Even now the PS2 has a tough job competing with the graphic quality of PC titles."

Chris West,

West Racing

irontend

industryopinion

Edge canvassed a number of devcos on PS2 coding

"l'a like to set the record straight about the whole antialiasing issue. People have made such a big deal about it, and now some developers are seizing the opportunity to make themselves look clever by telling bilatant lies.

‘Antialiasing is a technique used to make polygon edges look smoother. The PlayStation2 does support hardware antialiasing. However, it is unlikely to be used in most games because every polygon in a scene needs to be distance sorted, Distance sorting was a necessity on the original PlayStation because there was no 2-buffer, but with the high poly counts handled by the PlayStation? it isn't feasible for most games.

"There has been a lot of talk recently about certain developers having found a near-zero cost solution to the ‘antialiasing bug’, or of Sony having provided examples to developers. The technique that is being used is fundamentally different to antialiasing — it is a full-screen blur. Yes, it's fast, but the result is a blurry game with still clearly visible aliasing.

“The fact is, aliasing is something that people will have to get used to in PS2 games, just like the lack of perspective correction on the PlayStation or the blurriness ana poor texture quality on the N64. | don't see it as a big issue."

Name withheld

"There's a whale range of new concepts that come with PS2 that weren't in PS1, so if you've been a straightforward PS1 developer, you've been working with the traditional console — a very simple-type device that does what it does well, but doesn't do anything very complicated. PS2 is another order of magnitude more complex.

“| think that it's all well and good for Phil [Harrison] to talk about lots of things that the machine is going to be good at doing, and everyone is going to be looking at these areas. | think a lot of developers, or at least us - maybe we're an exception, | don't know — are just trying to understand delivery of games on PlayStation2. You know, we have real deadiines, real budgets, and there are a lot of production issues outside

“| think a lot of developers are just trying to understand delivery of games on PS2. We have real deadlines, real budgets, and there are production issues outside of the box"

of just the technology of the box that are new for companies like us to have to understand and deal with. | mean we've had, for example, problems where our authoring packages just can't deal with the sheer number of polygons that we're going to ba able to author the models with, and that's a real issue for us. There are solutions that procedural rendering techniques will actually help with, but at the same time we nave to deal with the short-term, we have to understand how to make games on this platform and get it right, and dellver a bloody good game to start off with, before we're going to be able to go on and do more in the future.

"People talk about antialiasing and they talk about two different techniques: there's a hardware solution to antialiasing and there's a software solution, We're using the latter - the former is built into the chip, but in order to use it you have to run with full-height frame buffers, which knocks a huge chunk out of your texture memory, sa it's all a matter of compromise." Name withheld

EXIME fii

Microsoft maintains X-E

ох momentum

Software giant restructures Euro ops in preparation to enter next-generation console market

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operations, with Julie Armita И marketing the platform. Paul Fox is head of European PR, and will work with Thierry Chabrol in France and

Hans Stettmeier in Germany. In the ШК

the Gamas/X-Box unit will be part of the

Home & нага division, headed by Chris Lewis. Stephen McGill will report t Richard Teversham, who is the groug ери monsnor Tr marmo and xx.mB - 4 т = — ا‎ ый i. nes channel mansoe nra 2

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addressed, and Teversham draws attention to the distinct marketing challenge presented by the target audience of 16-24-year-old gamers in the UK: "I think we've got quite à cynical-

to-marketing audience in the UK, and

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downwards. Sony have cull appeal оит they re still massmarket, and that is the winning formula to me.’

Teversham is adamant that Microsort should look to its predecessors and learn from their mistakes. “We're taking nothing for granted," he stresses, "and | think we need to listen and learn from what's gone

m & 4. = bes ч рч gm m аъ Р P uas = r^ Р on. My philosophy is that if we can build

on wnat tna лег Lec ole nave aona inm terms of marketing, etc, and add tne Microsoft touch, then we'll be in a good position." Although he is keen

to distance himself from criticism of his competitors, he argues that Sega concentrated on marketing its hardware

at the expense of games, and failed to

These shots come from Tau, the latest X-Box technology demo, from Kuju Entertainment (see p52). Using a punchy base PC with a GeForce? graphics card, it still gives no clearer indication of the final box's power, but it remains a sexy slice of code, especially with its water effects

generate word-of-mouth excitement for Dreamcast, as it had done with its

Mega Drive. Microsoft, on the other hand, is firmly committed to pushing its software. Likening the platform to a hi-fi separate, as opposed to Sony's all-in- one unit, Teversham adds that in order to target an audience preoccupied with gameplay, Microsoft will have to focus on content. "Microsoft is a brand name that doesn't energise our target audience in Europe, especially in the UK," he reasons.

and really creating a buzz," enthuses Teversham, “and when people like Funcom in ireland come out and say ‘We want to develop for X-Box and not for PS2', it’s adding to the whole momentum.” Microsoft's track record in assisting developers will also stand it

Teversham would like to see a simultaneous US/UK debut, prior to the Japanese launch

"X-Box is going to be the brand, but ultimately we will be promoting the games to promote the platform."

The development key

Of course, the key to producing quality content is to ensure a strong relationship with developers. "We're in a position at the moment where the excitement of developers is really riding à wave,

in good Stead, with the recent Meltdown event in the US assisting developers to adapt to DirectXB. "We're there to aid the developers to help them get out the best games, because we want the besi games on this platform, especially at launch," Teversham elaborates Microsoft's considered approach to the acquisition market is another pointer to the company's vision of the successful

launch of the machine. “The key win for us — and it's quite simple — is if we have the developers on board who are firmly behind the platlorm. What we can give the developers is a lot mare detall onscreen, better graphics and better sound. We've got the hard disk that gives them the clay to do what they want, and there's also the evolving games concept. We recently bought a company in the US for up-to-date, downloadable information [NetGames USA]. | think what Microsoft is doing very sensibly at the moment is we are partnering very, very good people like Konami, but we're buying people like Bunge, and | think we're making sensible acquisitions, rather than just rushing in and buying a whole stable. That makes me feel good, because | think we're getting the expertise of the people who are coming in who are lean and hungry, and really want to make their mark."

It's unsurprising that Teversham is

A key early standout feature among X-Box software should be showstopping lighting effects, and Tau features a raft of them

bullish about the market opportunity for X-Box, arguing there's room for all four plattorms, if not five: "What it's doing, | think, is bringing even more focus onto the games arena, and hopefully that will bring even more people into the market, more Interest, and it's going to be a very, very exciting time." With the design of X-Box now finalised (and looking ‘extremely nice apparently), he would like to see a simultaneous debut in the US and UK, prior ta the Japanese launch: "It would be great because it would break the mould and make our audience feel special." summing up, Teversham says: "It will be the developers, it will be the games, and it will be that we will have looked at what the other guys have done. We will have a machine that is three times as good as PS2, and we could call it a compliment that sony thought the hard disk is a good idea."

industryopinion

Developers share their thoughts on X-Box

"Right now, we're using high-end PCs with GeForce? cards running under DirectX8 to give us the closest stable developmant environment that we think approaches the X-Box in performance. Eventually we will use GeForce3 cards. Obviously, PC development tools are of a maturity that far exceed any other platform, and so this set-up has allowed us a tremendous amount of creative freedom to expand ideas and execution, both in terms of art and design, and, as you've already seen, the sheer power of the hardware is allowing us to achieve very exciting technological results. We only

expect this to get better with the advent of final hardware." Herman Serrano, Argonaut

"When we first heard about Microsoft's plans for X-Box, we had our doubts about the system. Having lived through the Win-CE on Dreamcast experience we thought it would basically be

a PC in a console box. As we started working with Microsoft and learning more about their plans, we have become increasingly impressed by their understanding of what it will take to compete with Sony/Nintendo and what developers need technically from a next-gen

console. The X-Box has all the advantages of a PC heritage (DirectX8, standard components, etc) but none of the downsides of the PC (like an ill-defined platform, resource-hogging

OS, or the cost). At Climax

we are very excited by the X-Box and believe that it is going to be a massive success. Consequently we are already committing significant resources to developing for the system."

Karl Jeffery, Climax

"Throughout Halo's design process, we've had to face tough choices about limiting the game's scope to accommodate lower-end

PC systems. Now that we're making the game for X-Box

first and foremost, we haven't thrown away our old performance guidelines, but we certainly feel a lot more comfortable committing to high-poly models, more detailed textures, a litany of shader effects, insane physics - all the really sexy things that X-Box is capable of. Tackling

a game as ambitious as Halo,

it feels really good to have a clear hardware target. Even better, one that allows the

whole team to create stuff

that's a lot more complex

than we originally planned." Joseph Staten, Bungie

011»

Sega spawns brave new arcade world

New wave of entertainment suites installed in key Tokyo locations as giant reinvents coin-ops

ega has taken the first steps M... awards implementing a nationwide

network of entertainment suites in Japan

he company claims that the venture entitled Entertainment STAGE пе will revolutionise the traditional image of amusement arcades, with facilities

connected Dy high-speed, nigh-capacity optic fibres, and set to offer a whole new ranae ot content,

Rival Sony has been slow to

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Consolidation rumours grow as shares take a dive

First six months of 2000 reveal tough conditions for industry heavyweights, but key figures retain confidence in new tech

Sony posts loss

Group performance figures paint disappointing picture

Sony's financial results for the quarter ending June 2000 have seen a net loss of ¥88.29bn (£533m). The loss is

largely due to a change in accounting rules that affected the companies movie division in the US, but the games division also posted a ¥16bn (£96.6m) operating loss due to the fact that Japanese sales of Playstation2 have yet to make up for declining software sales in Europe and the US.

A downward trend in share price is almost universal across the industry over the last six months, though recent speculation concerning a bid from infogrames gave Eidos a boost

Price $6

Feb Mar Арг

mid news that several leading videogame publishers have

reported a downturn in financial performance, speculation about possible consolidation within the industry is rife. Despite the continued optimism of analysts predicting the size of the videogame industry — worth nearly £1.8bn in the UK alone — to grow exponentially with the release of next-generation hardware, the mediocre financial results of several leading publishers, including EA, Eidos. Acclaim, Activision, THQ, and indeed Sony - which posted a 6.3 per cent drop in first-quarter sales - point very clearly to an industry in transition.

Although a deal is now looking increasingly unlikely, Eidos shares received a fillip this month from rumours that Infogrames was looking to acquire the company. This time last year, Eidos was a darling of the City, with its shares trading at nearly £13 in December, but a senes of profit warnings precipitated a collapse to around £3 before the rumoured Infogrames deal. THO shares also slumped after the company warned that sales and earnings would be less than anticipated, and in May this year Acclaim was notified by Nasdaq that it failed to meet the net tangible asset and minimum price bid requirements for listing on that market.

Whether or not a deal does occur, Infogrames has its own problems, with an operating margin that has decreased since last year, and recently acquired GT Interactive continuing to underperform, But the fact that it recently issued a convertible bond to raise £350m and announced a reverse stock split to prepare for further acquisitions suggests that it intends to continue its acquisitive approach. Acclairm's board of directors recently adopted a Shareholder Rights Plan to protect them from the possibility of an unfair takeover, which is another reflection of the

fact that a greater degree of consolidation could well be in the offing, lan Livingstone, executive chairman of Eidos, points out that consolidation occurs during periods of transition for a number of reasons, adding: “Some companies become vulnerable to a takeover because of shortage of working capital. Some companies decide to merge to gain critical mass and face new challenges through a combined entity." Nick Gibson, a financial analyst with investment bank Durlacher, goes further: "Given the changes that the advent of digital networks will bring to the games industry, this could be a catalyst for a number of new powers to emerge."

Chief among the reasons for such activity must surely be to cut costs. The extensive financial support that Eidos showed to lon Storm may or may not have contributed to the company's profit warnings, but it does serve as an excellent example of the profligacy that has accentuated the current slump in performance. Indeed the continued fall in share price didn't prevent executive directors of Eidos sharing a £5,6m bonus package earlier this year. The increasing expense of producing and marketing games, typified by the $20m budget for Shenmue, is coinciding with decreased software prices and falling sales while customers anticipate the release of the new consoles. "We are going through this period of transition as consumers await the launch of new hardware platforms," states Livingstone. "Consequently there has been а global softening of consumer demand for games, and we see no reason to expect circumstances to improve materially in the very near future." Gibson argues that the consumer demographic Is also undergoing transition: "At the end of a console's life, the demographic of the user tends to reach its least ‘productive’ (in terms of games bought per annum), with a significant proportion

The extensive financial support that Eidos showed to lon Storm serves as an excellent example of the profligacy that has accentuated the slump

Price Acclaim $14 12 10 8 6 4 May Jun Jul ` Feb Еч

of the active gaming market lying in the teen, pre-teen market and casual gaming market. As a result, gamers are less discriminating about games quality and sales are more often determined according to price, licences and established games brands."

The shock of transition

The only thing that is surprising about the current transition is that it appears to have come as a surprise to publishers. But as Livingstone points out, although the demise of 16bit was accompanied by a two-year slump, it ultimately expanded the market for videogames. “History shows that advances in

Mar Apr May Jun Jul

VN BI Eidos executive chairman lan Livingstone

ves 0

is optimistic that the current transition will result in an enlarged videogame market

technology always significantly increase the size of the games market," argues Livingstone. "In the end, the consumer will benefit as even more immersive and graphically intensive games appear on the shelves." But how are companies to sustain themselves until the next-generation consoles have a wide enough installed base to offset the declining sales of current platforms? “The launch of a new hardware platform gives us the opportunity to launch new titles and establish new intellectual property, while also launching sequels of our previously successful titles. | am very happy that

the core gamers drive this market, as Eidos has some particularly great games in the pipeline. We expect Time Splitters to be out

at launch of PS2 followed by a steady stream of titles for PS2,

nt “ila A eM

"Publishers are becoming increasingly cautious of committing ever-increasing development funding to start-up developers"

X-Box and Dolphin. It is likely, however, that we will put more resources into our franchise titles to maintain their Success."

Not every publisher or developer has the means to be so optimistic, though. Ironically, Eidos has traditionally been responsible for supporting small developers, which are likely to find the current transition hard: going

"Publishers are becoming increasingly cautious of committing ever-increasing development funding to start-up developers,” states Livingstone. "It takes quite a leap of faith to pay advances in excess of Etm to these guys unless they can demonstrate their expertise and technology. They are certainly not going to get funding off the back of a 20-page design document. The risks are too great. The best they can hope for is prototype funding."

Nevertheless, the current market cycle does offer some hope, as Gibson illustrates: “The cyclical transition between videogames platforms will throw up considerable opportunities for game developers who can create sufficiently differentiated, high-quality products, as the early-stage market is more welcoming towards new brands and new ideas than the late-

stage market, in which only established brands tend to survive In addition, the advent of digital networks will create a wealth of other opportunities for companies, as this will fundamentally affect the way games are designed, developed, published, distributed, played and paid for, and there are very, very

few companies that a fully prepared for this."

S0, despite a general downward trend in share prices, the industry is comfortable, looking ta previous cycles for reasons to be cheerful. “| am absolutely certain that the games market for next-generation platforms will be far greater than it was at the height of the 32bit market," says Livingstone. “The more realistic games appear onscreen, the more likely new consumers will be attracted to gaming. The anorak factor will simply disappear." But the revised focus of both Sega and Sony may represent a new paradigm that makes precedent redundant. There are already signs that a wide installed base of PS2 in Japan has not resulted in a wide take-up of game software, perhaps because PS2 is not simply a games console, but whether this new paradigm will expand or inhibit the market remains to be seen

Giants pull together

Four-way content deal set to spread IP in unique arrangement

In a rare example af co-operation, Japanese company Sammry, along with Sega, Sony and Bandai, has taken ownership of Sokiac, a digital content company. Now renamed Dimps, the ownership breaks down like this: Sammy: 5196; Bandai: 13%; Sega: 1096; Sony: 1096. The new company will produce content for all three of its parent companies’ platforms: PlayStation2, Dreamcast and WonderSwan.

Square hits the road

RPG giant to take latest Final Fantasy on European tour

Square will be demonstrating FFIX and Play Online across Europe with its Square Millennium Tour 2000. Taking place on the following dates, the events will also feature Q&A sessions, competitions and giveaways September 9 – London

September 16 - Munich

September 23 - Paris

September 30 – Milan

October 7 - Madrid

A handful of tickets available for this must-see event will be offered on Future Publishing's Daily Radar UK (dailyradar.co.uk), which will also be presenting exclusive Internet coverage, with a live webcam and a selection

of features and interviews.

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BAFTA awards call for entries

August deadline nears for nominations in industry's most lavish bash

E his year s BAFTA Interactive creative talent from the interactive | Entertainment Awards ceremony ndustny. We- are contident that 2000

of which Edge is a media partner — will will be another milestone year for

take place on October 26 at the Royal BAFTA Interactive, reflecting the

Lancaster Hotel in London. Nominations stunning arowth of the industry."

a TT. اسر ,= 1 کک‎ L* "= - рани ч DAC А | P 3 mmm "Sos w^ um. am will bê announced in September, a month HAF TA also hosts a senes of month کم ج ص غ‎ Сч Él. a OC Ainahan tes - rim m wee Hae fe ÉÁeu mecia mnn tre апег Ine Friday Аш JUS ux Cete m e SYS nESATTMET HO HEW [ТК 1 I ИШЕ ~~ =. Ра - > = - "] - = - 2 Еч - L mom entries. This year there are a total of 21 interactive industry. September 14 will see

;ategories, including three separate games WAP: What Next?' being held at BAFTA

sectors — PC. Console. and Mobile or HO (195 Piccadilly, London), with speakers

Networked = and an award for Best ШК including Dr John Ricketts of Ogilvy

Games Deveioper. Interest has beer Interactive Japan and steve Jackson

running Won, with more entries TOF Lionhead Studios outlinin g ine Comer 3190 € пап I t late apol Hone гу mob a techni Ta the (ue Р "M Р n E — = Te’ a= rum р р = = = 3 4 тыы r a a since the event was launched in 1998 entertainment and Dusiness sectors

the BAFTA awards have grown in stature. Awards entry forms can be obtained

Sue Thexton, chair of the Interactive online at www.bafta.ora, or by contacting

Entertainment Awards Committee, is Dan Boothby at the BAFTA Interactive Last year THE's Dick Francis (above) convinced the project will continue t Entertainment Office (tel: 02 ЗА picked up a number of gongs for Nintendo. flourish: “in 1999 we attracted the best ОС or dt by@batta | Lord Puttnam (centre left) is the big cheese Edge t Live in Sept b New conference aimed at dev and publishing community looms large ia 2001 will take place at the Palais front o trade and industry delegates | les Festivals in Cannes from followed by topics from the floor. The February 10-14, with a Think Tank panel will consist of Kevin Bac! conference being held on the first twe Microsoft X-Box division; Phil Harison

days. зоте 7,000 industry delegates SU EA; Gary Liddon, Climax; Peter including 600 developers — attended the Molyneux, Lionhead: David Perry, Shiny 2000 event, and it is hoped that Entertainment; and Edge editor Tony Mott attenaance wil De up next year па Gc on will cover new technok Чу in the meantime Edge Live. in ana йв Impact on the paying experience association with Milia, will take place | at the Hilton Olympia hotel in London or present an analysis oT market trends September 4. The event is Edge's first Entry is strictly to the trade and by

conference dedicated to the videogame invitation only, but there may be places lefi

development and publishing community nose wishing to attend should email their and it will CONSIST of a раги I Industry name, position and moany то

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In February Milia 2001 will retain the same Cannes venue as last year (above). Meanwhile, the organisation

is co-sponsoring Edge Live, featuring six panelists including (right) David Perry, Phil Harrison and Peter Molyneux

ple bites back with Cube kit

Steve Jobs shows off company's square image to beguiled NY audiences

А pple CEO Steve Jobs recently unveiled the company's new Engine in the chip makes it able to perform more {һап three

generation of products at the New York Expo, showing tha billion calculations per second, In terms ої raw processinga,the design-wise, Macintosh still leads the held Cube can outperform a 1GHz Pentium machine by 1.2 times

Following the phenomenal success of the iMac series and the running the likes of носна which more than qualifies it uitiprocessor G4, the company has managed to outdo itself with as a serious gaming platform.

the G4 Cube, Small, but perfectly formed, the eight-inch cube |5

unarguably the sexiest piece of hardware Apple ~ or any other Underneath the hood

computer manufacturer — has ever produced The 450MHz Cube comes with only 64Mb RAM as standard, but is

True to Apple tradition it bears none of the clunky looks of any capable of holding a healthy 1.5Gb. The 20Gb Vitra ATA/66 should

From the crystal-clear casing to the air-cooled fanless design, is the sort of object that demonstrates why designers exist at all

other computer. From the crystal-clear casing to the air-cooled prove an e performer, while the Cuba's dedicated AGP 2X slot fanless design, which makes its operation quieter than a whisper at is preinstalled with an ATI RAGE 128 Pro ij apos card PNG ust 15db, it is the sort of object that demonstrates why designers 16Mb of SDRAM, which will hold Quake li! at a steady 30їрѕ. The exist at all. The vertically loading DVD-ROM drive has a perfect Cube also offers two USB ports, each with its own dedicated 12- action, and in New York Jobs could not resist demonstrating how megabits-per-second channel. For high-bandwidth expansion to

the guts of the Cube can be extracted in a couple of seconds by 400 megabits per second, two FireWire ports enable the addition Tipping it upside Gown, pressing a pop-up handle, and then simpy of extra hard drives, printers, scanners and cial y video cameras lifting out the entire innards for easy upgrade Apple has also included a 56K v.90 modem and 10/100BASE-t

At the heart of the Cube is a PowerPC G4 processor running at Ethernet as standard, and Gigabit or 10 000BASE-T Ethernet can be

450MHz with a 1Mb backside level 2 cache, The built-in Velocity installed or (OUR to order from options at the Apple Web site The qualities of the Cube do not stop there. Apple has used

= Harman Kardon audio technology to build the most gorgeous of ee a ERE — тетт tnb. : ———— : i Terre EF gH А аа ё. р ПЕ ЕЕЕ MA i Б а ттт анына: mmea — | small, powerful speakers which complement the Cube in both

design and appearance with a frequency response of BOHz to | 20KHz. Apple has also devised а new optical mouse, which is housed in a matching crystal-clear enclosure. Ergonomically

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product list, its looks backed up by convincing performance.

Bungie says Halo

Macintosh stalwart allays vocal fears from gaming community

Bungie CEO Alex Seropian confirmed at the New York Expo that Halo (below) will definitely appear on the Mac. After Microsoft acquired Bungie Software, doubt over the future of

| Bungie Macintosh titles grew, as Bungie moved to work on

| X-Box software. However, Seropian quashed rumours, saying: "We still have a lot of love for the Mac platform." It is also clear that Halo |8 just the beginning, with Bungie having access to new resources thanks to its new partners at Microsort Ed Fries, Microsoft's vice president of games, revealed that

а new company has been established to ensure all existing and future Microsoft gamas will be ported to the Mac

Flip the Cube upside down and its architecture can be easily exposed. This process is not unlike something out of a sci-fi movie

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cass Retro show uses up third life

UK: Ostensibly an event to celebrate the history and origins of Videogames, Britmeet 3 also served as a focal pad for trade and debate. This year the event took place at Hertfordshire County House on June 2% and attracted more than 200 fans who sampled the likes of Colecovision Zaxxon and Atan 2600 fideo Olympics. Trivia quizzes and laughable video footage of Atari presenters giving advice on how to crack Yars Revenge were additional delights. A bigger event of this type is happening soon in Las Vegas. Expect a report next month

DE. FIFA bods strip Robbie

UK: ‘You've probably seen the video, featuring renowned pop chubster Robbie Wiliams being stripped of clothes and flesh until he resembles a shadow (well, skeleton) of his normal ваї. But you may not be aware that the production company behind the short, Clear, called upon the talents of Oxtord-based mo-cap house AudioMotion to make it happen. That's the outfit

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"The site looked like a plague e FM Pokémon" NME оп T in the Park, They could at least try to spell t proper:

"Mobile phones could account for as much as half of the game industry as a whole"

Konami president Kagemasa Kozuki

"For those who argue against regulation on the basis that it would stifle creativity, but create games that let us resolve conflict only by blowing our enemies to bloody bits, it's time to show us more creative solutions — while they still have чө chance"

Phil LoPiccolo, editor-in-chiet of Computer Graphics Wand an the ا‎ VIIENOe debate

“My ex-husband Jonny [Lee Miller] used to play [Tomb Raider] all the time, and | used to compete with this woman!" Angelina Jolie, апап

"Just imagine having sex with a superhot model. That pretty much sums it up" John Romero on his relabonship with Steve 'Killcree«' Case

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=.=. Plague Wars

This is no game. Things may have calmed in Iraq, Shoko a (eee TT

Asahara - leader of the Japanese cult that released nerve $959 TOM MANGOLD ЖЕЕ ges on the Tokyo subway — may have been brought to AND JEFF GOLDBERG justice, but the true threat of biological weapons Is only |

must beginning to emerge across the world.

It sounds like Cold War scaremongery, but, according zum == -== to Tom Mangold, nothing could be more real. In this ЖИШШ ШШШ ЛИШ monumental book Mangold delves into the darkest and - — 8 ed most sinister governments where biological weaponry is

being developed and — in some awful cases — put to use. | Н b 2

As a BBC war reporter, Mangold has visited tha most i RANKS controversial countries in the world, met with their military i | | "Hu | leaders and discovered some shocking facts. in this book THAM КИШ WIE AIARD he identifies the real ‘Plague Warriors’, the people he believes | ; ri New Culture Novel are behind these terrible weapons. These inciude, for example, | 1 a South African bioweapons expert who Mangold claims hired killers equipped with screwdrivers that doubled as lethal governments still active in Dioweapons, despite the LIN Biological Weapons Treaty banning their proliferation

He concludes that biological terrorism is a very real and growing threat, and predicts knowledge from the human genome project and aur increased understanding of genetics will serve to develop even more lethally efficient weapons. Part political thriller, part history of the late 20th century, ‘Plague Wars’ reads as effortlessly as fiction. Unfortunately, this is no work of the imagination, Chilling.

Mia P

d.

a.m Look To Windward

lain Banks is a book factory. He writes new novels about as often as some people buy them — at least one a year – and, despite the rate, produces gems few authors can match.

Hare, with the trademark 'M' thrust into his name - the letter which distinguishes his sci-fi nom de plume from his general fiction alter ego - Banks sucks yet more inspiration from TS Eliot's poem ‘The Waste Land’, and returns to the universe created in his last Culture novel, ‘Consider Phiebas .

‘Look to Windward’ opens in the Masag Orbital, an artificially created world whose inhabitants go rafting on lava flows for fun. In Banks’ previous Culture novel, the Culture's diplomatic intervention in Chelorian inter-caste affairs led to a terrible civil war that wiped out stars and killed billions,

Now, eight centuries on and lightyears away, the light from the explosion of the suns is about to wash over Masag, bringing with it memories of the humanitarian advice gone wrong. To mark the occasion Composer Ziller, a Chelgrian in self-imposed exile to Masa, is writing the symphony of his life. Meanwhile, the Chelgrians have sent an emissary to Masaq to persuade Ziller to return to Chel, But Major Quilan's true mission soon | ; FE N | joue АТЕНЕ

Banks ponders morality and the meaning of life in a nd Shi ктп йв дезип, ATRIAL TTD a world gone mad with technology, all with a generous helping of slapstick humour and a boundiess imagination for detail.

If you buy one SF book this year, make sure this iS il

TIPPS II21

a 024 >

his is a side of the games industry that you

aren't supposed to see. Two pale-chested

hacks from the nationals lazily steering a pedalo off the coast of France. a beer in one hand and the fingers of the other trailing in the water.

“I'm bloody giad I'm not up that mountain,” says one, peering over his shades at two topless teenage girls rummaging around in their bags, who are also being studied by a group of fat old cow-eyed men, huddled like decrepit buffalo at a watering hole. "Shut up and pedal," says the other.

Two hundred miles away, on a mountain at the foot of the Alps, a significant percentage of Europe's videogame journalists are discovering that a Humble Pak is no preparation for the real thing as they hurl themselves down Europe's to life, everything from ropes and mountain bikes to three-wheeled scooters are called into service

to facilitate the barely controlled plunge.

One editor already sits on the sidelines, watching the commotion as he nurses a sprained ankle. By the end of the day, two more will find it hard to stand up straight, another will require stitches, and the PR guy will have a new nickname — Robocop - on account of his metal-braced hand.

Welcome to a games industry press event. Where previous generations had war to prompt them into wondenng what is the point of it all, RedEye gets a £400-a-night hotel room and ай the “£400 a night" exciaims the guy from an infamous lad’s mag, as he picks over the flotsam and jetsam of yet another fruits de mer banquet, "This industry is rolling in it. They don't get this sort of treatment on Rolling Stone."

"No, but they do get cocaine and teenagers in the tollets of Madison Square Gardens," says

"Hey, I've got teenagers hounding me all day," says a writer who wanted to pen a novel, but instead compiles tips books. “I'll take my hospitality in used tenners, thank you very much."

Someone telis a story about a marketing manager at a now-deceased British publisher who used to throw his arms around any two pimply games journalists at industry parties and gruffly

announce: "I've done all nght by my boys, and they've done all right be me."

"Oh, | feel so used," smirks a heavily bandaged young writer. Everyone laughs, а Ийе too readily. it works like that?" persists the smirxer, as his colleague ferries more distant food supplies to within reach of his unbandaged arm.

"Nah, It's just to give the PRs a break from hassling us back in London in the rain,” says the lad's mag scribe. Everyone laughs. Again, a little too readily.

Perhaps there is no catch. But people say that they don't notice advertsing, yet Coca-Cola is the switch off the TV any time and that they only tune into intelligent documentaries about genetic engineering, but the spike for “Who Wants To Be А Millionaire" dims the streetlights. Certainly, press

REDEYE

rom inside the videogame

events (ав opposed to press trips, which at least involve a visit to a foreign developer] are the archetypal ‘good laugh’ - for participants and bystanders alike. Half a dozen wheezing games journalists clinging on to camels bound for the Great Pyramids in Egypt on the pretext of Tomb Raider,

never call, but you do meet again some sunny day, 4.000 miles from homa. i You eat in the swanky restaurant over the road from your usual Pizza Express for starters. Next thing you know, you're driving a tank — wrastiing а whopping great control stick that smells of oil rather than the по-ѕгпей of a joypad. You fly an aeroplane. motor in a stock car race on the Isle of Wight. You're given life on a plate. You get a tan. RedEye isn't even about to tell you what he has seen some of the industry's great and good do with women of il repute in far-flung cities. Yet. Alas, the days of the truly ridiculous trips have passed by — as those days are wont to do. The major media companies are now at least as they're keen not to associate their young troopers with anything that might be termed, aptly, a ‘jolly’.

It's left to anarchistic freelance writers to risk the more dubious sorties, with the magazine's

The arquably corrosive effects of press events on the moral fibre of journalists don't worry

Most game journalists have all the moral fibre you'd expect to find in a 22-year-old - so there's precious little to corrode

then being taken for а lessurely cruise down the Nile (with piles of Сако finest food and drink laid on, naturally) before being sat in front of a half-hour video presentation consisting of mostly prerendered

to a make-believe hijacking in the Bronx – their journalistic antennae falling to distinguish between the glamour models hired to point water pistols in the air and the real-life ghetto boys lurking outside the bus. The same trip saw a now TV-famous luggage in front of American airport security guards, with predictable results. That is the world that's made real by РЯ. The unusual is brought into your Ме for a few days, with a press CD tucked into your bag at the tnp's end and your pockets stuffed with the business cards of foreign journalists you'll

EDGE #5

journalists have all the moral fibre you'd expect in а 22-year-old, so there's precious ittie to comode. But also because the ability to schmooze and booze works both ways. Who's in a more compromising pasition, a journalist enjoying a perk of his job or the fresh-faced PR ingenue clutching a company credit card with her name on it and responsible for a bus of know-the-score journalists? Many a battie-scarred editor has returned home with exclusive stories or demos under his belt, thanks to a choice piece of table turning thanks to charming the pants off a PR. Who's zooming who? That's a question for is more concemed with looking out for himself = and watching his back.

RedEye is a veteran videogame journalist. His views do not necessarily coincide with Edge's

< 026 >

ow do we inhabit a character when | playing a videogame? As games toy with there's an increasing tension between ‘being’ the character under control, and then sitting back to watch him or her in the cut-scenes. This is problematic enough in a thirdperson action- adventure. But apply that personality-based paradigm to a firstperson game and some Over the summer, as Perfect Dark exploded off

the shelves, a marketing campaign sought to assure

us that its heroine, Joanna Dark, was the new Lara. But the two digital females are, in fact, gameplay opposites. For a start, the character aesthetics of Joanna Dark are drawn from disappointingly bog- standard sci-fi fetishism. Rendered artwork of the seductively recining spy shows an outfit that is

heels; her thighs and forearms are encased in articulated metal tubing. Her scoped Falcon 2 nestles in a low-slung leather holster, and a thin belt running around her abdomen, just below her breasts, holds only about ten extra rounds of ammo. This wornan could not possibly succeed In missions she'd fall over in her silly footwear. | contrast, were the character aesthetics of Lara Croft four years ago. Sure, her ever-infiatable breasts have women in videogames before or since perform acrobatics in flappy dresses or SSM basques and thongs — disappointingly, Namco didn't give Soul Calibur's Ivy an animation for picking her G-string out from between her arse cheeks after a particularly energetic kick. Croft, on the other hand, was at least dressed practically, in shorts and sensible shoes. The fortuitous inclusion of a backpack (originally to hide a polygon break at the waist) also went some way to lending vensimilitude to the enormous arsenal of weapons that Croft could cary at any one time.

But, of course, the major difference between Dark and Croft is that of perspective: the mode of spatial representation. In Tomb Raider, we see cur character in full from an extemal viewpoint. We are a disembodied pair of eyes, swooping and spying on the gameword heroine. In Perfect Dark, on the other hand, we hardly ever see ТЮ Tete tony бе kaaran aroa, a crucial part of a videogame character's identifiability is lost.

Game characters are seductive in two separate ways. They can simply be pleasing iconically; they can look nice as images. Joanna Dark satisfies this criterion in her derivative, comicbook way. But the

second major attraction о! videogame characters,

which the FPS necessarily fais to futi, is a dynamic one. it's through a dynamic attraction that we are Sucked into the game and made to care for our

Character by the pleasure of how he or she moves Solid Snake is a joy to control as he flattens up

against a wall or stealthily breaks a neck. Even the extremely simple, stupid heroes of Lemmings made you love them through animation: the silly hair, the

because we can see and control in full their bodily, dynamic activity. Nor do Dark's changing costurrles alter gameplay, which would be an interesting problem for designers in the future. At the start of the Camington Institute hostage level, for example, the cut-scene shows Joanna haring off to combat in a lona, tight cocktail dress. A sense of being Joanna movement through the level in interesting ways. The notion of ‘character’ in firstperson shooters is, therefore, highly compromised. The philosophical given of an FPS - what makes the genre so exciting - is that this is really you, acting in this wondrous environment. Any ‘emotions’ ought simply to be our Own — Our awe at the architecture; our fear, cunning, and triumph. So, asking us to believe that we are some sci-fi heroine, and having badly acted conversations prescripted for us, contradicts that initial premise. ff we are ‘playing’ a character in

TRIGGER HAPPY

this context, it should only really be a blank template — an instantly recognisable costume that we pull on. I'm a marine fighting demons from hell? Fine. That's all | need to know,

so beautifully. Your character was already part of the pantheon of modern myth, and most

Disappointingly, Namco didn't give Soul Calibur's Ivy an animation for picking her G-string from her arse after a particularly energetic kick

pathetic waving arms when they fell to ther doom. So, despite some lovely touches in Perfect Dark — ће way the camera zooms right inside Joanna's head at the beginning of a level; the way you can turn round the CamSpy and look at her through a fisheye rasterized display — you don't actually feel embodied as the heroine. Sure, you can see her forearms, but if you look straight down, you don't see any of her torso, or her feet. In the cut-scenes, meanwhile, she performs acrobatic manoeuvres — Paradoxically, one has a greater sense of being Lara Croft or Solid Snake, even though our viewpoint is divorced from theirs, This is precisely

EDGE +i

probably the subject of a few daydreams over the years. ‘I'm Bond? Okay! Of course | amt’ No further explanation, or ‘characterisation’, was required — or even desirable.

It's no surprise, after all this, that the most comically entertaining ‘characterisation’ in such games - the Duke Nukem series = has, in recent instalments, switched from a firstperson to a thirdperson perspective. The rule is simple for videogame desianers. If you want to convince us that we're someone else, you need to show us who they are.

Steven Poole is the author of "Trigger Happy: The inner Life Of Videogames' (Fourth Estate, £12)

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| espite the news that Monolith has secured the rights to

| develop the sequel to Aliens vs Predator, it will be soma __ ] time before it becomes clear how the company intends to assume Rebellion's mantle. Until then, a few clues may be obtained by playing No One Lives Forever, the latest story-drven firstperson shooter to feature the Litn Tech engine.

The game casts the player in the role of covert operative Agent Archer, whose appearance ls based on former face of L'Oréal Mitzi Martin. The world inhabited by Archer/Martin is a pastiche of "60s spy adventures and ‘Austin Powers -style spoofs, and features outlandish characters and gadgetry

With humour playing a large part in the game there is always the danger that the joke may fall flat. Daikatana's execrable attempts (‘Are you gonna quit this game just like you quit everything else in life") demonstrate that differences in sensibility are sometimes difficult to traverse. VOLF attempts to avert this danger by playing it straight, with the humour in the game largely derived from its roster of bizarre characters and exotic gadgets. The former includes a frustrated descendent of Wagner and a rather over-the-top American agent with a Colgate smile, the latter a robotic poodile and exploding lipstick. Should any of these grate, it's easy to focus on the more serious design elements of the game instead.

At the heart of the game lies the latest iteration of the LithTech engine. Monalith's success in licensing the engine to other developers (including Gathering of Developers for KISS: Psycho Circus - see p109), prompted the company to create a subsidiary with the specific goal of

The action in NOLF takes place in a variety of locations that would put the average Bond film to shame. As well refining the engine and toolset. Monolith CEO Jason Hall argues that as visiting Morocco, Germany, the Caribbean and England, Agent Archer will also end up in the French Alps this allows more time to be devoted to improving gameplay and level

© 032 EDGE i"

The appearance of lead character Agent Archer is based on that of Elite modal Mitzi Martin, Soma of her enemies and accomplices are less grounded in reality

on technology. Lith Tech should always take а back seat to gameplay." The engine facilitates the usual complement of visual niceties with specular highlighting, environment mapping and accurate model iahting. A weighted skeletal animation systern allows the realistic depichon of movement, and - depending on which of the 18 damage zones is hit — enemies can fall down flights of stairs, topple from ledges and even be blinded or knocked out. Another advantage of the enaine Sa seamless transition from outdoor environments to indoor areas

which has prover la dificult task to accomplish convincir а with other

= ¬ ac Thie Rae sli ы = * 14 [fw 7 m Eam m = i - еслгкносеѕ. (mnis nas alowed Ine WULF team Io incorDoraire wnal appears to be some quite inspired level desigr Т first ol | enimyer missi 1 = woes ane te E ХАУГ ки ыс roe fit d H a ih as | F = that алы В БИ LES WI ) | ГЖ = ru leve thua ow r چ‎ miir fous te Hha a rici ' Р Dey ص‎ | = bk LÀ duc um mI КАК. RA ы ы LER LI LA = LAUR 1 „ут as г س‎ а ou cue ui „э Rad rue md P i سی الس‎ к] ضح‎ LAURI Siark hunters wil be impressed by the underwater level [see “sharks da жы се tale rum з ^ arare eS) TB | nmi ип ап aernopane and m, —— = = - Тра ныз алы. کی‎ = ou dies with a parachute descent dunng wr Arcner 5 a Sang Р - س‎ So | ыт} T Pk. POT тч „ч. el a i ee m TECK for assaianis ne most remar«abpee ting аро mese SErncs ы)

Б that there is no single most effective approach to achieving mission obectives. Players can opt to storm into a situation with a twitchy

trigger finger, bristling with weapons, but will be equally rewarded

The world of NOLF is a pastiche of '60s spy adventures and ‘Austin Powers’-style spoofs, and features

outlandish characters and gadgetry

by a more stealthy approach, or Indeed a combination of the two The sophisticated AJ system no doubt contributes to this dynamic and other characters in the game respond to 11 stimuli, including

footprints, combat sounds and dead bodies. The exact nature of

ine response diers from character to character, some being more

- = =, - =, $ P, = - - т - = ж - o zuspicious than others. Another interesting feature mi the ceges

Df co-operation between Archer's enemies. Monolith promises that

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warnings of impending danger. The Direct Music AFI, elucidated by Seamus Blackley at ES with regard to X-Box, will enable a dynamic soundtrack that responds to what's going on in the game, Whiie AOLF's approach towards ingame audio provides an indication of things to come on X-Box, it is to be assumed that the game's story-driven structure is perhaps an indication of what

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to expect from the team working on Aliens vs Predator

Format PC

Publisher. Fax interactive Monolith

"gin. US

Sharks The contined surroundings of a sunken ship provide the backdrop for one af the missions in No One Lives Forever. During the mission, Agent Archer has no choice but to traverse a chamber populated by a number of deadly sharks. While there ts plenty of flotsam and jetsam to help cover her tracks, it's advisable, іп the interests of preventing a swift demise, not to get too close to the powell

jaws of snapping fish. And, though Archer has a harpoon gun to defend herself, she doesn't have quite enough ammunition to take out all the sharks

The LithTech engine can cope equally well with both indoor and outdoor scenes, allowing free reign when it comes to designing levels = with inspiring results

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Star Trek: Invasion!

Straightforward violence is introduced to the ‘Star Trek’ videogames canon as Warthog shuns strategy-based gaming in favour of a freewheeling space-based shoot 'em up

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Some levels take place over bitnapped planet surfaces. Warthog ditched plans to have a scene with ships fiyina close over a planet rotating towards the player as it was deemed ‘too cheesy’

earing completion at Mancunian

developer Warthog, Star Trek: — J Invasion! looks set to break new ground for the games franchise. The first 'Star Trek' licence for the PlayStation tears away from its PC brethren's tradition of ponderous (and almost universally terrible) strategy-based gaming and moves into the instinctive arena of space combat. The almost pathologically American series bases its philosophy on peaceful conflict resolution, hardly the premise for an exhilarating shoot ern up. However, after extensive input to make sure the game fits smoothly into the almost fascistically coherent ‘Star Trek’ universe, Paramount has approved a plot based around a new type of fighter craft.

The Valkyrie class of strike ship was

reated to counter a threat by 'The Next eneration' cube-based baddies, the Borg.

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Invasion innovates with its use of multiplayer, prose in a splitscreen co-operative play, as well as a holodeck-based deathmatch

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Now the Borg appear to be heading straight tor Earth, and, commanded by Picard and the appropriately aggressive Worf, the player takes the role of a rookie pilot in the Valkyrie squadron heading for a face off. Twenty-plus missions, with obiectives predominantly based on the destruction of opponents, incorporate appropriate sub-plots and impressive FMV sequences. Vocally, Invasion meets requirements too, with ‘The Next Generation' actors Patrick Stewart and Michael Dorn repnsing their roles in the series. The in-game interface also fits the bill, built тот the same orange and purple curves that adorn the Enterprise's computer panelling. It all adds to a universe consistency already established in the plot, and reinforced with the ship and environment design. The fighting takes you through open space arenas, with massive enemy ships and 3D planetary systems the backdrops. Graphically, Invasion features shadows mapped in realtime on the planets that rotate gently beneath you, and photon torpedoes sparkle against the deep black before exploding. Control of your tighthy manoeuvrable

ohter ts intuitive but offers an extended range of operations for the expenenced pilot. Double-taps strafe, while pressing two shoulder buttons simultaneously sends your ship into ona of three evasive action patterns, Directional movement can be oversensitive, and the lack of any sort of visual indicator means your own speed is difficult to judge, but the beautifully simple targeting system means the combat rarely suffers for it.

Targeting an opponent is achieved by

pressing the triangle button; holding It will "ock vou onto the ship, effectively automatically steering you in a persistent tailgating palh. This leaves you free to aim

your lasers at the target box, a light blue

square on your head-up display predicting the

future position of the enemy. Locking, with its

=

restricted freedom of manoeuvre апа easie garning experience, was crafted by Warthog

lor. the younger player. Avoiding using it offers

the defaut thirdperson ew can be shifted to an in-cockpit perspective. However, Invasion innovates with its use of ману present in the form of splitscreen co-operative play over the course of five missions, as well as a holodeck-based deathmatch. Thankfully, the game also steers players aw Systems hat have slowed the pace of others in its genre, preferring to direct the complex mechanics itself and to leave the player free to concentrate on weapon selection and usa. The arsenal of weapons at your disposal is varied, incorporating several types of laser, tractor bears, mines, gravity ooms, and numerous torpedoes. Selection takes place

via a simpie menu system called up witn tha

y from the energy-management

. When targeted, an enermy's heaiin is indicated Dy а small energy bar, but can also be observed by watching the impact

of your attacks. As your chosen weapon

Coherence is Paramount During the action. those familiar with “Star

sable from (he series

that have been created by the developer, e

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1 having urng

strikes your opponent, its dispersed over the

invisible shielding bubble With the failing of the shields, the dispersal

fades from green through yellow to red, before

disappearing completely and allowing you to rain fire directly down onto the enemy's hull, The emphasis on action is refreshing. For so long seen as a licence to print (Federation) money, the “Star Trek’ name has become synonymous with dull, poorly conceived and halt-heartedly executed ideas Loyal Trekkers will doubtless already have

Invasion on pre-order, but, for once, perhaps

the rest of the gaming world will have a reason to buy a ‘Star Trek’ title as well.

Paramount's

around 60 Snip designs,

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al. Based on the look and feel of the bigger crafts mare commonly nin "The Next Generation, Warthog 8

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Format. PlayStation Pubhsher Activision Developer Warthog Angie UK

Soicasa September

An organic-looking fleet of fighters is woken by starship activity nearby, This being Invasion, shooting rather than medation follows sult

Flying а smali fighter around the huge starships gives a truer idea of scale in the ‘Trek’ universe. Part of one level takes place inside a Borg vessal

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From time to time, Worf's ridged and rendered Klingon face pops up іп the top left of tha screen to offer advice, encouragement, or to admonish poor performance by the player. His digitised voice is streamed directly from the CD during gameplay

reworked and reworded by a “Star Trek’ screenwriter and the

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were rejected. The plot was has 115 Very

Formal: PC

' | 5 k Publisher: Fax Interactive Developer Monolith ' Ongin: Lis

Release Q4 2000

Monolith invites you to keep your head while all those around you are losing theirs as the world is threatened by psionics - ordinary men with extraordinary abilities

fter an acting career that has encompassed such films as ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ and ‘New Jack City’, as well as the | | | TV series ‘Players’, Ice T's finest hour is surely at hand in Aiken s Artfact, Providing the voice of lead character Agent Natnaniel Cain required the recital of more than 3,000 lines of dialogue to enrich the singleplayer component of a game that defies easy description, Gombining elements of Diablo and Magic: The Gathenng in a coherently scripted future in which humanity is threatened by the emergence of 'psionics' – ordinary humans with extraordinary abilities — the game benefits from producer Garret Pnce's experience as a comicbook author, as well as a cast of professional voice actors. Demonstrating the versatility of the LithTech engine (also see p32) the game is viewed from an isometric viewpoint, with a camera that can zoom and rotate to capture the action. $2 EH The game is. set over 20 levels and features eight bosses that must 7 ors 13, "O "O С "Өт 8 OW: OF: Obs а= qu be overcome in sequence. Cain starts with access to just one of the = үш = ч qme mie mt Na 7) eight Totems (or schools of psionic abilities), but defeating each boss | unlocks access to their particular Totem. Each Totem Is made up of a range of talents, which can be cast at a cost to the users sanity. When a character's reserve of sanity is drained, they become uncontrollable. Although the oneplayer game is well structured and involving, the real strength of the title lies in its multiplayer incarnation. Deatnmatcn levels are designed for up to eight players, and initial levels of sanity and health can be determined at the start of the game. Also to be decided at the outset is whether to allow access to the entire roster of talents, or whether players must choose a number E the duration of tne game. Another variant starts players off without access to any talents until they come across power-ups during play. The real beauty of the system Is the opportunity to combine one or more talents for an effect that is greater than the sum of their parts, which adds a strategic element to the Diabio-style hack 'n' slash dynamic. A further level of complexity is added by glyphs, which are talents that can be laid as traps in another nod to collectable card games, new talents can be made available without à patch, and indeed several such expansion sets are already in progress, not least to offset the weaker talents сї the early bosses, Wi th such a metagame dynamic, it will be interesting to see whether the prohibitive costs of online gaming in Europe will The use of talents is accompanied prevent Aiken's Artfact from acquiring the devoted Internet by a series of striking effects community that will ensure its success.

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Totems, talents and bosses

Throughout the course of his travails Cain will have to take part in

a bizarre game show, progress through catacombs populated with demons, and infiltrate covert drug laboratones. His efforts are impeded by an exotic roster of bosses. While Cain starts the game with recourse

to Pyrotechnic talents, the first boss, = Priscilla Divine = uses the Sun Totem, which affords her a variety of Egyptian magic. Later bosses rely on a number of different of Totems to determine the nature of Iheir defensive abilities, which include a Storm Totem, a Death

Totem, a Truth Totem, a Science Totem, a Demonology Totem,

and a Las Vegas-style Illusion Totem,

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Cain has recourse to a number of items = represented by icons to the left of the screen — with which to threaten wayward psionics and bring them into line

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mat; PlayStationa Publisher: Konami Developer: in-house Origin: Japan

Release: 2001

Konami is confident enough in Its manga-inspired strategy game, based In an alternative post-WWII Japan, for it to be the first of its genre to appear on PS2

outed as the first strategy game

for PS2, Konami's Hed has much

to do to persuade the initial wave of owners af the new console that this is a title vorthy of purchase. Though the display at E3 there Hed wouldn't be coming over to these shores. However, Konami seems confident that the

> was a general feeling that

lengthy localisation work put into converting the game for western tastes will pay off. Нес mixes eiements of turn-based strategy (lorces are marshalled and moved cale map) and realtime battles,

once the OD posing forces engage one

on a large-s

ano на Forces range from robot tanks to ech warriors and ground infantry. Konami 5 E uo much of the game's ability to both Satisty the intellect and deliver arcade-style sequences which require quick reflexes and quick-fire gunpla The action takes place during the aftermath of WWI in an alternate reality Japan is divided into three distinct terntones, Coid War tensions and escalating arms production have led to the stockpiling and invention of devastating mecha technology. The game begins when hostilities can no longer be held in check

and period of

Deploying your forces and organising an offensive strategy is the first objective The map includes a mix of mountain, valley and swamp terrain, and maximisina the potential of your units to suit the tand is imperative. Once opponents are met the

player can take full control of individual units. Mission directives are also issued, and serve to ensure that clearly defined goals keep the player interested.

Though playabl

e code was available

at Konami's recent ‘Kick Off event in Cannes, the copious Тато к text prevented

full appreciation of the game's subtleties. Noticeably, however, the transition from troop deployment to firstperson mecha control was handled well. Also in evidence were dashes of

When weapons are fired cut-scenes add to the drama by humanising tank-to-tank confrontations

game was on

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The mech tanks are particularly impressive,

with fluid animation and dynamic lighting effects. А range of units are available and each has markedly different weapons to add complexity

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RPG elements with the ability to take control of commanders and upgrade stats and abilities. Gaining experience even provides characters with special attacks which can be used dt b close-range battles. When t forces cla: jh the realtime elements come into play. Marshalling the units at your disposal becomes a much more pressurised affair Taking direct control of one mecha tank will mean that others must fend for themselves. How effective and comprehensive the Al is remains to be seen. Hopefully, friendly forces

will operate with some surreptitiousness

An injection of humanity

-or sometimes even three The RPG elements in Red add a human

side to the gameplay which may soften the methodical strategy. Being able to readily identify with the individual units and use experience gained distinguishes the title from many ATS clones.

The transition from the battle map to controlling individual units works well. Red's true test, however, will be in the long-haul campaians. The blend of action and strategy will have to be incredibly well balanced to avoid repetition rather than just piling in gung-ho.

A manga-inspired strategy game for Р52 is a bold move by Konami, though E western consumers could well be bemused rather than bequiled.

Format PlayStation2

| | Publisher SCEE . Developer in-house (Studi | | : =

Release Spring 2001

While the next instalment of the phenomenally popular futuristic racer has made progress since its E3 showing, much about the title still remains under wraps

nis month's few new screenshots of SCEE's next-generation VVipeout tite as the European PS2 launch approachds seen to indicate that the game is coming along at a reasonable rate since its E3 appearance, when running video of tracks was shown to

a crowd disappointed not to see live action. Eight characters are currently known to exist, though more may make the final product. Ship design is more adventurous than in previous Wipeouts, with many of the new machines boasting a smoother, more organic design. Furthermore, some of the futuristic vehicles are far larger than in any previous instalment — how this translates in terms of gameplay implications such as circuit width should soon become apparent.

Track layout, too, is expected to benefit

from a more daring approach, with mora splits and alternate routes introduced along the lengthy circuits. While the more audacious swirling raceways depicted in the team's concept designs have yet to make an appearance in polygonal form, expect

| mynad gravity-detying moments to As with the rest of the series, the developer has hinted ; 3 T that most of the past favourtte weapons should make й into the final version, while some of the less popular have been dropped to make way for a new range. Notice the extra level of detal 128bit grunt has allowed the team

to impiement mto tha tracks, such as structural cracks

test your futuristic racing refiaxes

Edge looks forward to learning more about how the Studio Liverpool team intends to take the popular series forward into the age of 128bit technology.

Formal: Play Station2

1 i | as Publisher SCH | | | | Developer Polyphony Digital | | | / Ongine Japan

Навазв: Q4 2000

Polyphony Digital is being less than forthcoming with details on its G72 follow-up, but with the car dynamics already in place, the title is evidently nearing completion

inally, you can get a glimpse of how GT2000 was looking Im back in May when Kazunon Yamauchi and team showed

|} pat E3 with a build featuring a gloomy Seattle track and a sunny Laguna Seca raceway. Other than higher-polygon-count versions of GT2's models, Edge has still to come across new vehicles in GT2000, though doubtless most are likely to remain garaged until release time draws frighteningly near

So too are any additions to gameplay. Polyphony has already

admitted that GT2000 isn't a true sequel, but rather а 128bit update of

the admired franchise, and that the real improvements are to be

implemented in G73. Knowing the team, Edge would find it

untathomable if а couple of new elements

failed to worm their way into the code tc

Spice up what could otherwise be cynically

viewed as an easy way lo get the mainstream

market excited about a game that may fail

to lve up to (possibly unrealistic) expectations Stil, with the team now focusing on the

title's visual aspect and setting up track | Lotus Elises, Toyota Calicas, Subaru Imprezas, Dodge Vipers, Lancia Stratos, Honda S2000s are all wall and good, but where are the new models? Ferrari is pretty much a no-go (although Edge has politely asked Acclaim to ‘land’ Polyphony one or two models). And licensing

aside, realtima damage would make all the difference

days for sound recording purposes (the

car dynamics were sorted out back in May), expect the package to improve still further as SCE patiently awaits what it must

regard as one of its saviour titles.

038 MM

Format: PlayStation2

ESPN Intemational Track & Fed =

Release. 2001

Next generation or not, Konami proves that button bashing will never fail to win the affection of gamers with a PlayStation2 update of its classic multiplayer athletics title

_ . ] enami's International Track & Field defined the button-bashing

X | sports game for the PlayStation era. Fiendishly addictive, and |} often generating more competition than the real thing, it left any potential successor with a lot to feel insecure about.

Clearly, Konami has not messed too much with a winning formula – the basic control system of two-button key presses followed by hitting an action key remains. However, some sports — such as the strangely compelling rhythmic aymnastics — require a subtly different approach. Direction arrows are represented on the screen and must be followed BeMani-style to twin a baton or throw a nibbon.

Graphics are much improved, and the mation and animations are excellent. Not so impressive is the fact that the motion-capture routines are the same for each athlete, and quickly become repetitive. It would have been worth the effort to vary the formulas for added effect.

More than a dozen disciplines are promised for the final version of ESPN international Track & Field, including weightlifting (always a popular event in the

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Maurice Greene (right) was just one of the athletes called upon by Konami to provide the motion-capture data.

original garne), skeet shooting and the long | Although the standard alternate button-pressing frenzy ~ шу jump. Those who feel particularly keen can B.DONATI returns, the developer has attempted to give every event Î MAURICE GREENE he Dinca Danca ER a subtia twist on the formula. The swimming discipline = ei = i ui d j a Р rii ИНО Кын H И = E Country ITALIA Course а (above and left) is particularly impressive, with water Шы: im wur быыл э reseau 4 А - EET f * u SIPC T SHORE SP 5 : Ў RS nee айй z mat for the gymnastics events. : d | rippling effects adding an extra touch of credibility `

Format: PlayStation2 Publisher: Konami Developer: In-house Origin: Japan Release: October 27

While devotees of the talented underdog in the football genre may be disappointed, Konami should have the only football game on the shelves at the PS2 Euro launch

r= umours have suggested that Konami executives were divided

-- CANCEL REPLAY | mi | on whether to showcase the company's popular footed ec L... | atits “Kick Off event. The playable demo was greeted with

a mixture of mild disdain and open disappointment by the gathering

of videogame journalists at Cannes.

Tha title still needs work before its launch, though some have grumbled that ‘TO per cent complete’ just means the Al will be tweaked. It's not that the game plays particularly poorly, more that the PS2 SS has remained static in terms of its presentation and gameplay mechanics. This is the N64 version in crisper clothing.

Gut-scenes and the motion-capture of players celebrating goals are predictably more melike, but add very litte to the actual game – whereas crowds and stadium scenery are poorly represented, and fail to enhance the atmosphere.

Though the (SS brand has never shifted the same number of units as its main rival — MIS РЕ LS EA's FIFA-endorsed games — more discerning

^ 4 | i

Though stil WURST | e d MED: l gamers prefer the former for its fluid gameplay ugh still very playable in its “70 per cent complete РАТИ | i jin | ; i gi estas form {55 for PlayStation? is proving less than revolutionary. pps Ld n ЧИДЕН and strategical depth. Those already owning Even evolutionary would be a generous epithet. A popular — se MITT i| u a copy of an /55 game may feel slightly numbers and Konami is banking on /SS being the only ЛОЙ in mer ihe brands ossia nt

football game available on October 26 reputation in this instalment. e

EDGE #8 039 2

Format: Cain-ap

Publisher Мако Developer, In-house Origin: Japan

VrDiler2

Namco's smash-hit manic miner returns, this time with a young German fráulein in tow, as players get the opportunity to indulge in a spot of underground twoplayer action

Fielease Out now

sales – an impressive figure in a depressed market = Mr Dniler returns. India, America, and Egypt are the backdrops to а new set of levels for his familiar battle against oxygen deprivation and falling

f

DEPTH

[ ot content with drilling his way through 10,000 arcade unit NI NI

rock, this time with an accomplice, He's joined by the Germanic Miss na Hottenmaer, and white the prospect of romance can never be discounted, the future of the pint-sized heroes looks set to be predominantly based around colourful blocks and spinning drills There are no revolutionary changes to the gameplay that proved so addictive in the original; the same frantic puzzling is here, the same gaudiness and gameplay remains. But, importantly, the inclusion of a second character introduces a twoplayer mode - something severely lacking in the former game. This follows the pattern of the оперіауег game, with the addon of attack blocks that disorientate by flipping or rotatating the opponent's screen. Though а

- "m | | great amount of the code remains unaltered Exe ЁШ eem | ЧЫДАШЫ, from the first instalment (the India mode is aS را‎ | - JE Screen layout is in the traditional manner of puzzle

identical to that of the first Mr Drillen, it's difficult to castigate Namco for taking an excellent game and attempting to remove its minor imperfections, which it seems to

games, with a sidebar informing you of your progress, score, and lives left. As in Mr Driller 1, air must be replenished by reaching oxygen cylinders. The difficulty of the stage is indicated by its depth

have succeeded in doing here.

Format: PlayStation2

[| Punisher: Konami | Developer: In-house (КСЕ West) | i : | УД! Japan

Relenza: Q4 2001

The videogame world's most anticipated title takes a few more steps towards finished status as its creator invites members of the press to view his crowning glory in Cannes

t a private screening in Cannes Konami recently showcased (2 its MIGS2 trailer to the press for only the second time. In the more intimate surroundings of the Majestic Hotel's conference room delegates were invited to question Hideo Kojima about the game and were even treated to a new short section of film.

The new footage showed Snake in typically dramatic fashion negotiating his way down a corridor and then firing a burst of bullets Into several large windows with an automatic weapon. Unlike the first дате Snake's presence will be noted by obvious signs of disturbance such as shards of glass and blood stains = even shadows will alert guards. Given that a little more was revealed the trailer received generous applause and set the atmosphere for the ОВА session with Hideo Kojima. Among other new siivers of information was the news that Metal Gear Ray would be unleashed upon New York with sequences taking place at tne statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. The new, Improved mech can also take to the water, generating speculation m that parts of the game may take place

ў к! undersea. Койтпа-вап, however, would neither confirm nor deny this aspect.

Snake arrives in the gameworld in a distinctly Terminator- esque manner (nght), providing further evidence of Kojima- san's love of movies (and his willingness to borrow from them). Action sequences such as this (left) are far from

subtie - Snake simply stands there and pummels enemies |" T = x = with gunfire. Maybe this is one element, like so many Vr remm І тал Whatever the case, that late-2001 others, that is set to be made significantly more elaborate ШИНИ sail. release date still seems painfully far off

O40 EDGE н

Format: Dreamcast, coin-op

| TER Publisher: Sega | 3 EF -— Developer Smile Bit : : ЖЕ Origin: Japan

Release: Out now (Japan) ТВС (UK)

Japanese gamers are introduced to realtime strategy with a title bound for Dreamcast and arcades, the latter featuring a fibre-optic cable link capability

ver the last few years, Command & Conquer clones have developed their own acronym and have gone on to domitate a large share of the PC market. Japanese gamers, however, have yet to experience the joys of stockpiling arms and generating technologies in-a realtime universe. In an atypical reversal, Sega has taken a winning formula trom the west and adapted It for Japanese videogame consumers.

Hundred Swords delivers all the elements that RTS devotees crave: unit creation and distribution, invention of advanced technologies, and the usual resource-management elements mixed with explosive tactical action, The player chooses from eight leader types to deliver a variety of tactical styles. Some utilise magic more effectively, while others produce foot

а gj m 1 TEE Ta S MH 2 CNN CE soldiers speedily. Played with up to four pos T | 1 — = ч. m si " » players, the gems ax de offer a more intense al up 2602200 ' а. and competitive experience than similar titles. ТЫ TET 30C ШИ * | a iy Interestingly, the arcade version can be played a с>, E à; & m 3

via fibre optic cables between Sega's Joypolis

1 ы 5 7 ] | КЕКИ N and GIGO arcade centres. Plans to combine Sega has had some tough decisions to make in bringing ШШ E: = Д à mud coo a ATS game to the arcade. Apart trom the uncertain | 4 | | б у “haa '® [ Dreamcast and arcade play is also afoot, response from gamers (it is the first of its type in Japan). — 9201 Шү ШЕ ҮШ oo ШШ although details of tha logistics are currently Hundred Swords breaks the usual three-minute rule of an Fiai DEN | H unclear. The Dreamcast version also

arcade challenge. Dreamcast players will be offered many A B +

more scenarios, and may even Nave the opportunity of going head to head against arcade opponents

boasts 30 scenanos, compared to the three of the coin-op version.

Format 1 PlayStation2

| == Publisher Capcom z ——--- Developer: Game Arts i i - н Origin Japan

Release: September

A no-nonsense shooter is emerging from the still-smouldering remains of the Mega CD to bring its brand of all-guns-blazing interstellar combat to PlayStation2

he Sipheed name offered a glimpse of acceptability among the wreckage of the Mega CD, and this new incarnation on PS2 represents another chance to witness the pure shoot em up realtime 3D action it offers — albeit in updated form, naturally. Nine different weapons, waves of enemies, unlimited fire and inadequate shielding — regardless of its next-gen status, anyone who has played something from this genre on апу plattorm will find themselves in familiar territory here.

The break from tradition comes with the weapon control, Two separate buttons control the firing of your left and right wings, and a third fires both sides at once. Different types of weaponry can be equipped on each side, meaning the prayer has the opportunity to devise devastating combinations of firepower, Elsewhere, Siloheed follows typical shooter desion. The appearance of ‘Emergency’ during each level heralds the inevitable bosses, and 'Herue! signals a chance to replenish your five-bar shield. Billed as a remix of its previous Sega outing, the simpie structure and destroy-everything poli means Silpheed is unlikely to astound with Its originality, but the frenetic action could still find favour with nostaigia freaks. =

Bosses and level structure are reminiscent of the disappointing Hay Crisis, and, indeed, most vertical scrollers before tt. Hopefully, the power of PlayStatian2 will facilitate a faster, more fluid, and much mare attractive gaming experience

041

Format: Nintendo 64

Publisher: Mintendo

i i | 4 Developer In-house Origin Japan

Release: August 11

Mario returns to the Nintendo 64 in an RPG which is based on the quest to recover a stolen 'fairy wand' and incorporates 2D effects with a 3D twist that fans will recognise

reviously known as Mario RPG 2, Nintendo has decided to alter the title in keeping with past successes such as Yoshi's | Story, The plot, which involves the theft of a fairy wand, АДЕ is levelled very much at a younger audience, suggesting that the challenge may be equally as gentie.

Nintendo insiders have been calling the hero 'paper Mario’, an allusion to the inventive stylistic effect produced throughout the game. First used in the menus in Yoshi's Story, the 2D objects in the game are animated using various 3D effects. Such clever visual mixing reminds gamers both of past glories, such as Super Mario World, but also acknowledges the impact of Nintendo's first fully 3D outing

The battle system has also been updated and requires the use the analogue stick and pressing either the A or B button depending on the enemy encountered, Bosses will be confronted in traditional style, although Nintendo is promising that they will be original in many ways. The narrative can be diverted at key points after playing mini-games, and the player can even control princess Peach

A slew of new characters and a power-up system controled by badges shoud keep younger and die-hard Mario fans happy until his next excursion, in 128bit form

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Mario will be able to perform multiple actions and the onscreen commands (left) show the complexity of the attack to be performed. Familiar enemies such as the Koopa Troopas and Bob-ombs (above) return, although Nintendo has promised many new adversaries. The title Ce CAC Ait o FREER dg! seems likely to be Mario's very last outing on the N64, and kl tans will be hoping that it captures some of the old magic

Ое

Do you remember when Japanese-produced games offering distinctly, madly original elements wouldn't get within a sniff of being released in the west? How times change...

Format. PlayStation

- Publisher: Titus Developer Polygon Magic Inc Origin: Japan

m top ten hit in Japan, Incredible Crisis ls a collection of mini-

АХ games, each one evoking nothing more complicated than _____| aGame&Watch title. But where Konami's similarly-styied Bishi Bashi Special made no pretence of its predominantly multiplayer appeal, Incredible Crisis is a oneplayer game, and spins a fittingly linking tale between its sections. Taneo is a balding, stressed businessman on his way home to his grandma's birthday party. His journey kicks off the story, but the rest of his family — each suffering their own incredible crises — participate on tha way through the 20-plus levels.

Aside from its simplicity, the appeal of Incredible Crisis is based around cartoon slapstick and allusions to numerous films, some more pointed than others. The names of the levels, seen as videocassettes in the level selection screen, lead the way: Snowboarding with Wolves, Kiss of Spiderman, and Titanic Away are just three of the barely masked references, They come visually, too, with Taneo fleeing from an Indy Jones-style rolling stone boulder, then blasting through a window on the crest of an explosion like a karaoke ‘Die Hard’. While Incredible Crisis may be big in Japan, whether its success will transiate better than its humour ! remains to be seen. —

Having grooved his way through an impromptu office dance-of and escaped а rolling boulder, Taneo finds himself answering multiple choice questions in the back of an ambulance. Success there means a visit to the suicidal trolley nding level, ‘Let's Go By Stretcher

* 042 2 EDGE

Fo mat. PC بچ‎ | P Publisher. Infogrames Developer Spellbound

| le 5 С c \ \ 3 = ` Origin: Germany ` Release: March 2001

The spaghetti western comes to PC in a game featuring gunslingers intent on hunting bandit leader El Diablo through the New Mexico badlands during the American Civil War

Г 1 n contrast to the quite bewildering number of videogames

set in hackneyed sci-fi/fantasy environments, relatively few m | developers have seen fit to explore the dramatic potential of the wild west. Desperados — an adventure strategy gama set in New Mexico during the American Civil War — goes some way towards remedying this state of affairs.

The player controls a band of gunsingers over 24 missions, which take in a representative selection of western locales such as pueblos, ghost towns, saloons, steamers and gold mines. The six heroes each А have their own specialisation, with John Cooper taking the role of leader and most effective marksman. His supporting cast includes an explosives expert. a female poker player, and an oriental character with a pet monkey. In their quest to find enigmatic bandit leader El Diablo they will have to contend with enemies whose behaviour is determined by traits such as resistance to alcohol and sense of duty

Whether or not the genre has sufficient

immediate appeal, Desperados geis

= |

The crisp, isometric appearance of Desperados appears to owe much to Commandos, and while gameplay is also reminiscent of that title, the unique environment threatens to land a more innovative approach to gameplay. Six tutorial missions should provide players with a gentle introduction to the threat posed by rattlesnakes, bandits, and the dangers of getting nebriated at the local saloon

gameplay mileage out of its Setting, with missions requinng snoot-outs, tram attacks, and character actions encompassing powder Keg detonations, knife throwing, and Sacdling and nding horses

7B

Form a PlayStation

| Publisher Konami Developer In-house (KCEJE) | | s Sri cun: Japan

Release: Q4 2000

Swordplay comes to PS2 courtesy of Konami, but this hack ‘em up, based in 18th century Japan, is still beset with problems after being scheduled for PlayStation1

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Г г onami's 7 Glades was originally conceived two years ago for JT BAS EPIIT.

the PlayStation, and looks like a game which has undergone transitional difficulties, as it has now been scheduled to appear on PlayStation2. Though Konami says the game is only 40 per cent complete, the code is playable and provides a good indication of what to expect In the completed version.

Two characters are selectable and each must play through their own adventure set in 18th century Japan. Landscapes and scenery, however, do vary and more modem items and architecture occasionally appear. As the title suggests, the two heroes can make use of a selection of gruesome weapons. Typically the male is stronger and ша in heavier sword weapons, while the female is more agile and prefers missile weapons. Both scenarios differ markedly, опепгю a longer term challenge.

Though looking decidedly rough around the edges, 7 Blades plays like a decent enough hack ‘em up. Multiple enemies can be dispatched with a single sweep of the sword, and Konami is making much of {һа game's ability to display 20 enemies simultaneously onscreen, Despite the promise

k = am d, m Е" m Y = DEVON showed, however, / Dadas

Happily, 7 Blades will not be a launch title. The code played by Edge displayed many inconsistencies and much work still needs to be implemented. The size of the player's character (above) may prove to be a drawback, covering a large part of the playing area and obscuring enemies at critical times. The fundamentals of carving up several adversaries in опе sweep does, however, prove satisfying

still lacks entire tins full of polish

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TimeSplitters

If you're looking for the next GoldenEye or Perfect Dark, you had better look elsewhere — Free Radical Design's FPS is an entirely different prospect altogether. Edge cuts into the developers busy schedule to find out more about what appears to be the most exciting PlayStation2 launch title

\\ FA [7 ith tittle regard for time UAM | [ and space, the fiendish LU L | Timesplitters race has –

for as long as anyone cares to

remember – manipulated humanity s

fate, encouraging fear, greed and

conflict with the aid of cursed crystal shards of pure evil. Their interest in

Earth has been reignited by a

disparate group of heroic personalities

battling their villainous counterparts in

a period spanning a century (1935-

2035), and the TimeSplitters have

again employed their time/space

continuum-disrupting skills in order to get in on the action. As is so often the case, the fate of humanity is now in your joypad-hugging hands.

In oneplayer mode, the game |s divided into nine levels which propel you from the tomb-raidina antics of а 305 adventurer through to the robotic-reliance of the 21st century. There is na main character. There is no evolving narrative. And — believe it or not — there are no cut scenes.

Responsibility for this fresh take on the genre lies with Nottingham-based outfit Free Radical Design. Founded last year by five former members of the Rare GoidenEye/Perfect L

Format: PlayStation2

Publisher: Eidos Developer Free Radical Design Release: October 26

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family. When Edge first mat up with the quintet = soon alter they had taken the decisión to go It alone — the whole team (including equipment) fitted #1 a generously proportioned room. A rdlocation, another 11 members and a seemingly endiass supply of PS2 dev kits later, Edge

= адай shaking hands with founding members David Doak, Steve

Ellis anc Kari Hilton

Games for gamers "To make the sort of game that if 1 was buying a new console | would Doak responds

to Edge initia! queries regarding

the project's underlying concept.

"| think we warteg to get back to something that was really instantaneous,” adds Hilton. “We wanted to do something really bang In your face ~ it just goes back to the old arcade-styla thing of having a tot of tun very quickly."

f'imeSplittars certainly occupies arcade teritory, harking back to the days when Doom ruled the gaming roost with corridors and rooms olfering dozens of demonic opponents just begging to be sent straight back to Hell. While the polygonal revalution put an end to a developer's cream of matching id Software's fragfest lor enemy counts, It is only as the next generation of hardware starts to Һ its stide that coders are beginning to implement respectable numbers of CPU characters (though, to be fair, Edge has counted up to eight adversanes while playing Perfect Dark on the ageing Nintendo 64 ).

The main thrust of FHD's game is to maintain a high level of action at all times, and the most obvious way of achieving this is to ensure the screen is constantly populated with bac guys. As a result, while the oneplayer missions have an objective to them - Bue an item ora attempt a simple escape — the finesse and delicacy evident in most ot toctay's stealth-based firstperson

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Wherever you stand, you're never more than an arm's length from а P82 dev kit. Nargate's audio station takes the most imposing office placing

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The area perhaps still needing the most work is the Al. This usually gets massively compromised as a result of

ime constraints and hardware limitations, but FAD is confident that foundations are already in place. With GoldenEye, all of the Al was directed against the player, whereas in a multiplayer setting there needs to be consistency in the way the CPU treats other NPCs. “The thing with Al is that people attribute so much to it that they see what they want to see when they play. The idea is just fooling most of the people most of the time. As long as people enjoy it and

think they're there and that they're getting caught out by things, then they'll think it's a challenge," says Karl Hilton

romps is nowhere to be seen. This is beautifully demonstrated as Doak, within seconds of starting one of the more Modern levels, begins spraying а vast, multi-levelied room АЛ of

ng scum with an infeasible number of bullets from his character's compact mini-aun. It's far from subtle, yet instantly aratitying.

Change of plan

But it's also very different from the game FHOD talked about developing when it was interviewed m E72. Back then tne tearn seemed intent on revolutionising the FPS genre, with what sounded like a hugely ambitious title. "As a start-up company you warnt to arrive with a good product,” explains Hilton, “and f you go into one of these huge projects with ncredibly complex goals, whether you achieve it ûf not + às we ve Seen with othar start-ups — is debatable,

and what we want to da is get a game

out there, hope ully for launch, that is good and that peopie really enjoy.”

"M nas now been wee years Since GoldenEye and we wanted to be in а position to say "Well, look. we're re-establishing our pedigree as developers and people making aamas'," Doak continues. "In some ways [TimeSplitters is] а simpler gama, but in other ways there are other inings about й which are very challenging. "

Not least fram a technical point of view. Every time Edge studies

59 240:

tha screen, everything hammers along at the 6Oips mark = and it does $0 regardless of the number of brilianty animated and unusually eccentric characters Sepia yel Add in some rmeasonabty complex architecture swathed in delighttul textures, split the screen in four, and It's an undeniably stirring affair. Who says PS2 programming is dilficult? "It's a lot of fun," laughs Elis. whe Cites working on the Nintendo 64 a great learning experience. “it bangs back memores o! the Amiga and stuff like that. | think it's probably quite different for people who've been doing PC games, Dut I've really enjoyed it. You have all these things going on at once, and you have to каар them al busy ff you want to get amy decent

performance out of them."

iA An - Р А Lm m While tne majority of PS2

developers Edge has spoken to recently can t wait to divulge the insurmountable problems they've been having, Ellis’ only area of criticism extends to the CPU, which he finds ‘a liite bit slow’. But then the development of TimeSplitters has been meticulously planned so that as few surprises as possible would turn up and potentially play havoc with release dates. No one is startled by the frame rate holding up, regardless of the onscreen action. After all. it wasn't simply а case of throwing

tne fourplayer mode in at the fast minute and finding that everything

suddenly around to a halt

The default control system uses both Dual shock 2 analogue sticks, bul expect a comprehensive list of alternative options

“Ve sat down, looked at the specs and said, "This is how many poligans we're going to use for this, this 18 how much texture menma we ve gol’. ҮҮӨ sont it af up and made a game based around that and it works.” reveals Ellis. "A lot of people have gone tor really nigh-end stuff and realised it's actually going to take a long time to do that."

in another move against accepted convention, TimeSpitters ent predommnatety about oneplayer gaming. From the start, the focus has been on the multiplayer aption, thoug! before vou Start во чае into sourcir K] thirdparty PS2 modems, FRD's take on multiplasing doesn't match those of your average PC gamer

Social splitscreen

“The best fun | think |'ve ever had playing multiplayer games was playing Bomberman," admits Doak. "And it wasn't playing Bomberman over the Net, The whole social aspect af internet gaming} iS alvavs conspicuousry apsent, and uniess you go somewhere ike one of these LAN party places where everyone can sit around and shout at people, you don't gat the immediacy of insulting people or shouting ar mucking around," he explains.

TimaeSpitters' multiplayer action

has been designed n the console

‘gather round a screen’ sense. Having spent most of the day trying the near finished product in just that way, it's

The variety of characters and

intriguing backgrounds in TimeSplitters is striking. "We have an oustanding character artist who has got fantastic imagination, and we sat him down and went through some possible scenarios. He started to come back with sketch books full

of characters, and we looked at the characters and we talked about the backgrounds and he just started matching them up = that was how IT was built up, says head artist Karl Hilton "[We think] the best way to

get the best out of people is to іеї them be as free as possible. That's why we dont have a games designer, specifically = if you have someone with a set idea of how it's going to be, then no one is interested in working on it. So here we try to tell everyone, "This i$ your area, it has to keep within rough constraints, but other man ûû what you want , and people comes up with a lot more interesting stuff. Both background and characters are not any one person's golden vision.’

© $ гї v

PS2 FPS DIY

Ona of the most impressive features currently functioning in TimeSplitters

is its level editor. As with many other elements of the game, this still has some finalising to undergo, but already it's shaping up to be one of the best examples of its type, if only for its ease of use, A choice of 16 chamber pieces, which can be onentated їп amy manner, allows for some complex map building. ancd includes all fundamental gameplay aspects such as weapon and character placement. Massive multi- levelled rooms are possible, though FRD may need to restrict some of the more ambitious designs should playability problems occur. Required memory card space will be minimal

heartening to see that the team hasn't lost its touch when it comes to splitscreen battling. As you'd expect from the people that ware involved in bringing you Goidentye, the options lst iS going to be substantial

Opening the toy box

"If you таке a game іе, there's ake — people lke то coma back to it again and again and they make up their owr games,” says

Hilton. “So the idea with TimesSplitters

a lot more replay v

Б to таке It as much gi a toy бох

as possibile, because everyone has always got ideas of haw they would make their game, and then they get slightly disappointed when the gama yOu ve provided them with &n't quite what ney wanted, flexible and аз open as possible."

This is a goal that tha team

has certainly achieved. In another

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agaressive шт on current trends, өгү itie in hidden from the start. Although still to

TimeSpitters 15 locked or

be finalised, it's likely that as many as be accessible tha momant the game has Timished its loading routine Furtherrnore, don't expect the usual amount of bonus items "It's come from the tact that it's an arcada-actuon Kind of tmo, and also the toy box thing = the tools," Doak explains. "If you give someone a toy Dox. then you shoud One ti access to ali the bits in it. You can add hours of gameplay by taking people through banal things: finish the gama, now you have to do this to get this. "We hope [to include! what we call

Surprise and delent features," reveals Hilton, “which are things that you discover as you go along, and they're useful or they're fun or you weren't expecting them. But theres a level at wich it becomes a routine kind af thing, and you don't want to get into that kind of game: you've got to dà this and do this and then veu get his becomes а goal in itse

"I you're expecting a present, its never as much fun as when you get one oy surprise, and these days

everyone has come to expect it 50 you have to try and surprise people And you can da that in much smaller ways that are actually more satistying in terms of the gameplay."

One of those Б the level of

interactivity with the levels. “It's really

“We hope to include what we call ‘surprise and delight’ features, which are things you discover as you go along, and they're useful or they're fun or you weren't expecting them"

important to us that you'll be able to elvan mats things and you'll be able to alter things," Hiton says, reassunngly. "Firstly, because you have to do that these days, and also because it's a lot more fun [усы think you're having an eflect on your environment — it's aways disappointing if you shoot something and nothing happens, 30 it's something that is very high on our pnorties and we'll make sure that as much as we can do mat you can leave your mark, however you choose to do 80."

Hence you should expect windows to shatter, pub signs to syvivel, bulet hues to be punched

into walls, and perhaps a couple of new additions. But you can file away any grand ideas you may have aready conjured up in your mind for future reference.

Making it happen

“It's like опе of those things about curved surtaces and delormabia geometry: it sounds nice," Doak begins. "I remember опа of the things in Perfect Dark about having walls that you could explode and you think about it: “Oh yeah, we can build Some in, Ir wil be Great, and the next

thing is, ‘Oh, they re special casas’ ‘You've just developed this massiva Inconsistency, so then you have to flag them — so thare might as well not have bean a wall in the first place." So blowing up entire houses is not on the menu, but you do get to play around wath dynamite and grenades, as well as shotguns, pistols, and machine quns fram the diflering time zones. The weapon list is still to be finalised, as Б where they will be places through the levels. Thinking about it, (ће enemies wil need to know where te stand, too. And as the Al is stil being worked on, ney may not necessanty do what they're told just yet, But while there's plenty to do before the proposed October 26 release, no one at FRD For that matter, neither is Edge Even at this stage. Timesplitters is

immensely playable. To tha uninitiated,

It may initially appear shallow. But before you know it, валік pace and unique Character, combined with some already masterfuly honed action, has you hooked as the game opens up, revealing its true depth.

imagine what the finished article [i=

“Л play Ike. pS

At times, some of the arenas open up to offer areas, which convincingly highlights the level design that has gone into the game (above). The promising multiplayer modes remain the game's chief focus

The initial influence for the game came straight from B-movies and as such the game doesn't take itself too seriously, which in tha FPS world is more than welcome. Environments for levels include a military base, a village (complete with pubs and a cellar network), bank, an Egyptianesque tomb complex, a dockside setting, and a barren outerworld landscape

While particle effects are up to the rest of the game's high visual standards, Edge felt the dynamite explosions looked a little weak. Still, the weapons are still under development. Likely to be a CD rather than DVD release, the subsequent lack of a Dolby Digital track would be a shame given the quality of the current audio accompaniment

Entertainment's sole Dreamcast dev kit is

for sale, although as yet there have been ^"iviennuiries from hopeful purchasers.

"You can put that in your story,” chuckles lan Baverstock, the company's business development director. He has good reason to be cheery: his studio is currently working on a PlayStation? racing title in conjunction with one of the world's most respected motor companies; it recently began work on X-Box development; and It will be responsible for ' delivering what Microsoft believes will be Its next new simulation sensation for the PC.

Based in Godalming, Surrey, just down the road from Guildford, where a wedge of more high-profile developers famously reside, Kuju Entertainment may not command immediate attention from Edge readers. The company's most significant console title tà date is the faintly risible Tank Racer, and its most recent work has been in the field of air combat sims, such as the accomplished KA-52 Team Alligator.

So how did the developer get into bed with Sony and find itself bullding premium. content for PS2? Sitting in the company's unassuming boardroom within an anonymous-looking smattering of buildings situated on a slightly tatty industrial estate on the outskirts of town, answers do not vividly present themselves.

Managing director Jonathan Newth has a theory: "To quantify it, we started working with PC ЗО cards in 1994 — the first card we had was a Yamaha card, which never made it to market. Every six months since then there's been acceleration in PC technology. We've been working closely with 3D card guys and Microsoft, learning every six months about New generations of technology. So, it's taken us five years and we've learnt a lot along the five years of understanding."

"Wall, I'd say it's a bit more than just understanding." Baverstock interjects. "Jules

Inside...

^ Г] 3 |j n mie | mg id F ab j m 8 | Wha [Julian Davis, Кии technical director] sits on Kuju Entertainment | crn ! . | | | ee We've been closely involved in a feedback p. link with them, so we've been folowing and

understanding the architecture possibilities."

Having built a reputation for delivering quality flight sims for the Т The Lotus position

hardcore PC hobbyist gaming market, a UK developer in the | 9 Of the many games expected to reach the PAL

Ji PiayStation? market within its first 12 months on TET ВЕ А А | | = "forts sale in this territory, something like 40 of them finest English tradition is coming back down to earth. Edge du Mao moro ise ThE REESE OE P Nb 3 e. А i | dE Gran Tunsmo and Colin McRae Rally clearly visited Surrey in search of PS2 racing, cream tea-style B hasn't gone unnoticed, and it seems that every » man and his dog is preparing his own spin on one of videogaming's most established genres to take. Few of them, however, can boast the kind of partner that Kuju can with Lotus, with which it is working to create Lotus Challenge, a title that, as well as providing the core gameplay components now expected in this "imr them vidt de E MEE ME rto Sith cy УНЕР ей sector, will forge ahead in celebrating a ON үн a RD he EA | 2 Me dt НИДЕ; ЧЫ) Жу Да ELEM Eh. ZUM distinctly British success story. T] hn sae : Sras : n 4 2% :

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"We're doing dual-pass rendering on everything," reveals Julian Davis, "and most of the imagery will be prelit, so that we can use much higher quality lighting operations for the terrain, and then we can perform dynamic lighting effects on top of that"

ompanies," relates Baverstock, when questioned on the game's опг, “and a lot of hem have сопе non-excausive licences wi a lot of people to put their cars in lots of games, and they're beginning to realise, as are | think

are a lot of other corporations, that games are

to either their curent or potential consumers They re sitting there, saying, "This is a lot of eyeball time compared to, say, a TV advert’

And with people like the guys at Lotus it was

what Ferrari have been doing for a while, which iS Dascally saying, ‘No, our brand is far too valuable and far too important to just mix up with all these other people'."

ts certainly easy to see how suits sitting around a table at a motor manufacturer НО COUN identity the extra licensing casn that might be ‘leveraged trom established IP “When you look at the overall sca

tha issue for them, the money isn't actually

eof

the key issue," counters Baverstock. "The

roy as ip س س‎ Bde 1 =) mc Ha? o4 m Fs = oo i. в кү, тч. ыер ытын ый мегу easy 10 go talk to tham and say that the money iS secondary to the presentation of

really ought to do a game that uses their own brand, where we can really focus on your cars and your history, your tradition.

"You could easily argue that the premium brands in Gran Turismo, for example, are diluted, even damaged by being associated with, say, a Yaris or whatever, There's a whole

load of milkfloats in there, for God's sake. Il

their brand. If you screw around with their brand, that's far more dangerous to them than any amount of money they might of

might not make from a videogame."

Sharing technology With а company such as Lotus — which clearly

is no mass producer like a Ford or a General

| ; c riim = ^ P* mA "un был er = E Р — — . what you re doing is aspiring to own an Elise or Motors ~ it's not difficult to understand why a Porsche or a Ferrari. then it doesn't really passion is such a key part of the mix. Having

work. | think its quite ikë over time that we'll

see more ст the premium prands in cars do

dentihed the potential that the marriage о!

Kuju's experience and the power of new

"The key thing with Lotus is obviously that they're English, and that the cars are very driveable," says lan | Baverstock. "It's all about that country lane, high-manoeuvrability driving, rather than just monster power” =

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A Lotus Challenge car model such as this is made up of 6,000 polys. You should see the X-Box demo...

gaming technology could bring to its famous range of automobiles, Lotus has committed to working closely with the codeshop, providing reams of data, including everything from teemetry to power-torque curves,

that can be incorporated within the code

witnout too much pain

the variables for each car,” reveals project

director Ad Stevenson. "We've got 41 cars in total, and obviously they all behave differently, otevenson refers to as ‘some eiements

given things like centre of gravity, exact from Lotus 5 own driving model’. The team dirnensions, plus all the other elements Lotus makes it clear that, using data such as this, have given us. Once we've got a driving model it is working towards building a super-accurate that works, we can put all this data in and the driving experience. But what about that car will handle differently. We've tried putting a special 'x' factor, the tapering of code that Lotus Carlton in, which is just a very powertul prevents the rabid chase of realism from saloon car, and it does handie very ditferenthy being overbearing, and crushing raw

to everytnung ese, which proves ial our enjoyment as a consequence 7

driving model works as it should. "Well, we'll have varying different modes їс Tie rne nme nuu bi ay ar Fry tre rm airau tor à Parry = lc x ht art Kt Larran 1 TS moge: Das Deer LUI ВЕ UTE V mQ anA mr va Vil K] IVES OT ARMY, ЧІ dus ГЕТЕ scratch (this, gwen the existence ої /ank 355 does," says Stevenson. "But we also have

Hacer, comes as particularty good news) a new control system that we're thinking of although, again, it does include what implementing. We're not saying anything about that at the moment in case anyone nicks it,” he smiles, "but there's a new way of using the

joypad that we've come up with,”

Smashing through windows

What's especially compelling about Lotus

Challenge is that Kuju is consciously building

something more than simply a meat-and-

potatoes racer with gravy in the form of a

prestigious brand poured on top. Ininquingly, a stunt mode exists, and although at the time of Edge visit only a handful of stunt tests —

Kuju claims that view distance will be up to two

miles on some tracks. Extra scenery is to be added 180°, 360", acceleration, and broadside

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Kuju's PS2 engine tech Starting in September last year with the first iteration of Sony's PS2 dev kit, Kuju has been evolving its own proprietary 3D technology in | the form of its Sigma engine. The code, which focuses on delivering natural-looking А! and subtle graphical nuances, is a testament to the company's technical nous. You can download the demo AVI from www.kuju.com.

<056 >

parking into a space (the most spectacular, If obviously difficult, manoeuvre) are in place, Stevenson promises that the team is "planning to have a lot more stuff, like jumping off ramps, through windows," which brings to mind images of Super Runabout. Surely Lotus wouldn't approve? “Yeah, absolutely," says Stevenson, "The fantastic thing about working with tham is that they accept that we know how to make computer games. And we accept that they know how to make cars." This extends to general car damage. too. Whereas in the likes of Gran Turismo you can ram your vehicle into a bollard at 150mph and bounce off without a scratch, Latus Challenge

convincing as the host technoloay will allow (an X-Box demo version exists, too, but at the moment that's all it is — a demo). Talk inevitably turns to that most chewed-over of PS2 hardware topics: antialiasing.

“This is sort of cheaty AA," says programmer Matt Hobbs. “Its quite subtle, but it uses the last frame to create a form of motion blur. It sort of gets rid of the interlacing to a certain extent, as well." i

Hobbs' reasoning behind this methodology seems to make sense: "If you're going to use the hardware AA you end up using about 70 per cent of your video memory just as a frame Duffer. But this effect is pretty 'cheap'. And you

"Lotus accept that we know how to

make computer

that they know how to make cars"

will feature full damage options.

"Lotus didn't need any persuading about that,” says Davis. "The problem with multi- brand car games and people smashing them up in them, | don't think it's really that the car companies ага worried about smashing their cars up; what they're worried about is that their car looks worse than someone else's car in the same дате, So Lotus's view was, as long as it's physically real - so the car just doesn't fall to bits and is unnaturally unreliable or anything like that — it's fine, They really didn't have any problem with it at all."

Driving technology The damage modelling isn't in there yet, but cars are driveable, and are well modelled, from around 6,000 polys. These triangles build outer shell and inner details, down to drivers who'll be anirnated in the final game. (Other driving Dunes offering a choice of soft-top cars have cheated in the past by not providing 'top- down' versions in order to save on polvs that would be necessary to render driver detail: Lotus Challenge will not.)

The development team is currently putting together an ambitious bundle of tracks on which to place these cars, although only two are based on real-life locations — one being the Lotus test track from the company's HQ in Norwich, the other based on London (n an odd twist, the track designers put together their own take on what a GP circuit would look йке п the UK capital and were amused when a story broke in the national press about a proposal for the very same thing to happen in real life: the suggested route around famous landmarks was eerily close to their own),

Lotus Challenge looks as spartan as all games do at this point in development. A vereor teatunna the proposed seven other алсан has yet to be built. But the drive

on to create an environment that looks as

T

es. And we accept

don't tend to notice that it's motion blur, because with PS2 you can alpha blend to whatever level you want, so you can just make it really subtle, which i$ enough just to take the edge off it, but not so much so that you think that motion blur's on all the time."

It's not a wholly convincing replacement for the ‘real thing’, but it certainly eiminates the Kind of harsh edges evident in the first round of PS2 software. With nips and tucks it may yet prove an even more effective solution.

Engine noises

Davis, meanwhile, is Keen to talk about other issues — namely audio. "One cool thing that Sony's been talking about recently is the whole area of sound processing,” he begins. “Fundamentally, the PS2 has two old sound chips from a PS1 stuck together, and you can program it in exactly the same way, So that isn't actually much of a jump — it's twice as

powerful as PS1 – but you have a whole PS1 ке ПЕ, mi fi processor sitting there which has got ҮП, jeg j "ts absolutely nothing to do apart from load stut! 4 is

off CD or talk to your sound chips for you. So | you can do a load of different things. You can make up any piece of code to write a filtering DSP that can manipulate your sound files in some crazy way, The obvious thing to do, when you're writing a Car racing game = you want the engine sound to be hyper-realistic, to follow the flow of the engine revs and the speed you ге going, the amount of torque you're putting on and suchlike — is to synthesise the sound instead of just playing а sample, and then potentially you're going to get a much richer sound. That's another area of research that people are looking into."

With the spirit involved in the project, from the Kuju creatives in Godalming to the bods in white coats up at Lotus in Norwich, this seems set to be just one more component that makes up a labour of love.

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Not only is Microsoft's annual PC games conference a place for coders to talk shop, it also provides an opportunity to crunch alpha code on the latest graphics cards. Edge

looks at what happens when developers go to test

Vendors" (IHV) compatibility-testing program,

held under the auspices of Microsoft's Windows Game Developars Conference (WGDC), is like an industry-wide blind date. Developers sign up for sessions with graphics card companies оп a whiteboard at reception. Meanwhile, the hardware vendors sit in anonymous, beige hotel rooms with casalass PCs stacked on trestle tables, cables strewn over the floor and laptops jacked into phone sockets. Occasionally, the power the machines draw will trip a room's circuit breaker, shutting everything down.

The real crunch occurs when the developers actually meet the hardware guys, though. Sometimes they know sach other and its fine; but more often it's an awkward meeting of two sets of strangers — and not everyone possesses good social skills. When finally introduced they geton famously, of course. After all, thay are members of the happy PC development ѕесї: a community with open architecture and no licence fees to pay. In place of Cilla sits a similarly wholesome and toothy Microsoft — midwife to the whole process.

| n many ways the Independent Hardware

059 >

idi 1: ziii Red and Monopoly Tycoon For the first day of the testing program, Edge pairs up with Deep Red. a deveiopmen dh spun out of Hasbro Interactive. It currently has three games in development Thunderbirds tor PI iiis ation2, an as-yet-unnamecd football management game, and Monopoly sprit the game it's testing today

A combination of Hasbro's Monopoly licence and Its Tycoon brand, the game takes the Monopoly board and crosses it with SimCity-style graphics and management

gameplay. While this may seem to be a strange title for Edge to cover, it's interesting

Deco | 3 assmarket apoeal forces a minimum spec of a P200 runrundg

Ine game in Software, It will have to work on all grapmcs caras, too Edges pointman = = e

for the day is John White, the game's lead programmer.

Room 1: 53 Graphics The first (Ну on the schedule is S3. C urrenth undergoing a difficult reorganisation with its graphics card business being bought by VIA, the Company IS currently down on its

luck, The one area it is targeting 1s the laptop market

EUM machine spec oshiba Tecra 8100 laptop with Pentium Ill 500MHz with Savage MX AGP chip and

BMb of integrated RAM

; EF eth y= ES) ] - Е TE С, As а massmarket tile. Deep Red's Monopoly Tycoon LET UC O UN АРУ АТ Ке usns зу, has to work with an enormously wide range of 3D cards

Verdict Room 2: NVidia

When the game is loaded, there are some problems and the neat nighttime specular The current hot ticket of the show thanks to lighting effects are lost as the card dosent cé" multitexturing. It also runs a littlà its involvement with X-Box and the success slowly, but this isn't too surprising as the game is unoptimised and uses а lot of texture of its GeForce cards, NVidia's two testing memory. S3's John Casey reckons the gama looks 'pretty rockin", and White seems rooms are very busy all show

pleased with results too. It's the first time he's seen it running on a laptop

Testing machine 3 spec Testing machine 2 spec Athlon 700MHz with. а GeForce 2 GTS and

Athlon 9OO0MHz with Viper 11 graphics card and 32MDb of HAM jeMb of RAM

Verdict Verdict

‘What's going on in the background? tt's not clearing the screen property," Casey The game appears to be running fine until comments. “Allocate 2 range tor the 2D stuff or try adding a native W-buffer that can While starts to notice a probiem with some De toggled, he suggests. White is unsure that allowing users to toggle between the W of the window textures, which are popping and Z buffers is something the game's target audience is going to comprehend. and displaying white noise. “When you say

"It worked well In Messiah," someone else pipes up, "We ve seen this problem multitexturing, you are using two textures before, Casey admits, and the problem is finally blarned on the drivers, which aren't stages, right?" asks NVidia s Dave Horne, thé latest version. Everyone leaves, honour intact Irying to get the root of thé problem. But

It wasn't all work, work, work at WGDC, a point Edge hammered home at the party, held at Namco Station, beneath the London Eye. It proved to be a fruitful opportunity to quiz developers on the two burning issues of the day, notably: 1. What's the most exciting thing about DirectX?; and 2. ls the PC dead as a gamas platform?

1. | d have to say the graphics. the 1. Ease of use - you can get going 1. П has an easy-to-use graphics 1. itsa соса API on the whole. it's programmability, tha pixel shader fast. | like that interface which makes very functional, | can't say anything and the vertex shader stuff 2. | don't know. | think the PC will programmers’ lives much easier. about DirectxB, though, ‘cos I'm

2. | dönt think so. In terms of online develop into à console or something 2. | don't think so, There are very under an NDA

multiplayer games the PC piattorm like that. The X-Box is a PC in some many management simulations 2. No. because of the installed base 5 still tha most viable one. Sony, senses because it has a hard disk. and financial simulations out there and how easy it [5 to program. | Nintendo and Sega are stili trying in Germany. | think the X-Box will think it will develop into a different to figura out The Connectivity side. be great for action games, though market, though

< 060

that's only the start of the questioning: Testing machine 4 spec

"Ara you using any level of detail?"; AMD 9S00MHz with Voodoo 5500 AGP board and 64Mb of RAM, split equally between "Are you using DX texture compression"; the two VSA-100 chips "What's your polygon throughput?" To which the answers, respectively, are: Verdict "No, it's not optimised yet"; “No”; and The game runs without problems; even the window texturing issue seam fine. Rory “About 70.000 per frame." Duncan, 3díx's marketing manager, is keen to talk about the card's full-sample anti- After a few minutes of discussion, aliasing technology. "This. is hignest quality anti-aliasing you can get on any board," its suggested that Casey should put ha bcasts. “How have you found some of the other boards?" continues Duncan, 4 everything into big vertex buffers. "As “Well, we've had a problem on a few of them, but it's probably in the game rather What goes on behind locked hotel doors at WGDC far as we are concerned, and as far as than tha drivers," replies Casey, tactfully. "No, don't blame yourself," laughs Duncan NEM тзн ое старание is bis doped Microsoft are concerned, the biagest “Blame it on the other cards." with developers and graphics card companies asking = questions, wondering whether they're compatible state change уди can do is the vertex buffer change," Horne states, underlining NVidia's Ser Suid 1 verdict new position as a partner to the entity that ‘When you do this testing, the kind of changes you dread are big gameplay ones. may as well be known as Direct X-Box. Eunice insigne fe NESE MOL dotis testno tie ИШЕ] of Horne are still going strong: "What do үгүс vou dead are bido: dez "t you recommend as a vertex buffer size?" اللا‎ d حل‎ y 24 СИЗЕ! pfe я mim] 2 TES asks Casey. Nvidias European developer J е: = | AoOLIJEITII 4 cil 414 B) f] 6 | 4 =) j = 6) | | БИИ 218) е) у relations guru Richard Huddy turns up fresh from a talk on vertex shaders and We've just been getting niagles, so I'm happy," says Casey. The main issue thrown higher-order primitives. “We've written up was the ‘noisy’ window textures. Jahn thinks it's due to the different ‘2’ precision some pretty crazy vertex shader stuff,” that cards use when dealing with texture coordinates. “It should be easy to fix"

пе avandeliseas, | Time to move on.

Day 2: Infogrames and Mr Dog

Room 3: 3dfx Interactive The second day of IHV duties sees Edge shadowing a very different beast. Despite The past year has been a tough one for [he unassuming name, Mr Dog is Infogrames’ in-house crosspiatiorm games engine. 3dfx as it has faced very strong competition Designed by the ex-Gremiins stalwarts at Infogrames Sheffield House, Mr Dog is fram the likes of NVidia. It is now finally being used, globally, in the development of ten Infogrames titles. Another three Mr rolling out the latest incarnations of its Dog-spawned games ага also on the cards, and there's a PlayStation2 version alread Voodoo 4, 5 and 6 multiple-chip boards. up and running. "It's much faster than the PC version," one of the team tells Edge. On test today is a special version of Mr Dog. Its a technology demonstration of PG hardware transform and lighting (T&L) rendering that exists to push as many

polygons and effacts as possible. dat with only NVidia and ATi currently supporting the technology, there are few compatibility issues at stake. Today is more a case of showing off and talking about optimisation. Leading the charge is Gary Edwards, the producer of UEFA 2007, which will be the first game to

p eon x mm use the Mr Dag engine.

NVidia

After walting for 20 minutes for the NVidia team to turn up (they took the questionable decision to indulge in a protracted absinthe session the night before), the Mr Dog team gets down to business

1. That it changes all the tima 1. I'm only hearing about the new 1. Coming from a person who 1. It unities the hardware cards. 1. | honestly don't know,

As for DirectX8, | suppose the stuff today and it does sound very has just been introduced to it, 2. Na: The PC has so much more 2.| hope so, because it stops

vertex shaders. cool. It's ali thinly velled about how i's much better than DirectXxT. to offer than a console can ever averyone focusing on the software.

2. Yes, it is. It's just the problem relevant it is to X-Box, but it does 2. Yes, because | think most of have. |t has an Internet browser When the hardware platform's solid,

of finding the right business look like a neat way at getting at the PC's games are shit. than has a fuil Java-script software's the focus and all the

model, that's the difficult thing. the new hardware features. compllancy, and if you look ahead developers are more like craftsmen. 2. | don't think so. With a bit of at the Internet, multiplayer gaming

luck it will be dead for big publishers, which will make it interesting for everyone else.

061 >

Testing machine 5 spec AMD 700MHz, GeForce 2 GTS with 32Mb of RAM

Verdict

The shiny mausoleum architecture of the demo positively glows with its specular lighting effects and highly polished floor. Unsurprisingly, considering Nvidia's expertise in the field of hardware T&L, the demo runs well at around SOfps with 50,000 polys per frame. There is some flickering on tne reflective floor surface, however, when it 2000, but this is slightly

considered to be as robust as its

runs on Windows 98. It seems to work better with Windows confusing as Windows 2000 isn't generally oredecessors with respect to hardware T&L yet. Everyone scratches their heads, wondering what the problem couic бе

Dave Horne thinks it could be a timing issue that results in the renderer trying to write from a locked vertex buffer. Then the demo completely crashes, but all the Mr Dog team seems to be interested in is what higher-order surfaces NVidia is going to ba supporting in its forthcoming X-Box card. 'Look at the feature set on the GeForce 2 card and in DirectX8 and expect more of the same’, seems to be the from NVidia, although no опе will comment publicly. "I would be sacked if | said anything." reiterates a ograve-looking Home

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ATi Technologies

Despite its strength in the OEM, Mac and laptop markets, ATi hasn't made a splash with hardcore gamers recently. The release of its impressive-looking Radeon 256 hardware T&L chip could change all this.

Testing machine 6 spec AMD 700MHz with Radeon 256 and 32Mb of HAM

Verdict

ne demo runs weil DUT at a

slightly lower framerate than the GeForce 2

; зоте dropping of blocks. “That's a known problem with the Z-buffer" explains

Тапа Mitchell. &Ti's haad of tech vertex butter exchanges. "Try optimising the index triangle list," he suggests

nology. Then the talk slips into the usual technical Infogrames’ core tech team continues its growing obsession with subdivisional surfaces by talking at great length about N-patches, which are a way of increasing the smoothness and polygon counts of 3D models without artists having to do any mora work. N-patches are АТГ preferred option and Jason gave a tecture on the subject yesterday. "N-Patches are definitely the way to go." the Mr Dog people

tell anyone іп earshot

Infograrmies' in-house crossplatiorm game engine. Mr Dog, was put through its paces with a TAL technology

AMD

Following Intel's last-minute hijacking of the X-Box CPU deal, AMD is demonstrating it harbours по ill feelings towards Microsoft Dy agreeing to co-sponsor WGDC

Testing machine 7 spec AMD Thunderbird 1GHz with NVidia (GeForce 2 GTS card

Verdict I may seem perverse 10 run a hardware T&L demo on PC i a 1GHz CPU when all the T&L is being calculated on the graphics card but, as AMD's Mike Goddard explains, "Sometimes we can run hardware T&L code faster in software than on the graphics card.” This is something NVidia 15 sure to query, but Goddard

demo which experienced few problems al the show, bar some flickering on the floor and some dropped blocks

believes that AMD got Evolva, one of the first games that supported hardware T&L, to run faster using Direct3D than on the GeForce 256 card, "It all depends on the implementation of the APT," he remarks archly. AMD expects to have a 1.5GHz CPU out by the end of the year as well. As for the demo, it runs às well as it did in NVidia's suite. Obviously.

Day 2 overall verdict

Despite tha fact that it was apparently put together їп a week, there were very few problems with the hardware T&L demo of Mr Dog. The engine pumped out a lot of polygons, the lighting and reflective effects were dazzling and everyone went home T-shirted and happy, albeit slightly is hungover. Roll on next year, с

1. ts the fact that it moves forward every year so much. With DirectX5, I'm not sure we made a very big forward jump, but since then it's moved a long way forward.

2. Absolutely not, The X-Box leverages it to a temic extent.

It's a fina piece of hardware

1. Compatibility with the best PC titles that are out there at the moment. It's a good basic for having the best technology titles that are say na. currently available today

2. Tha PC continues to lead the

way in having the best tities on

any platform, anywhere,

< 062

1. That's a tough one. [Asks his friand] N-patches. 2. Debatable. Publishars say yes, we

1. DirectPlay voiceover IP.

2. No, because of (he amount of investment that Microsoft is putting

into it. If won't die

1. From our perspectiva it's that we get to do a iot of optimisation in the AFI, and the developers won't nave to do И

2. | hope not! No, | think the PC will always lead on the front edge of gaming.

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he localisation process is probably the most overlooked aspect of game development. ' B When a title of the calibre and complexity of Final Fantasy | Vill sells one million units ina non- пануе territory, the last people to receive any of the acclaim are those responsible for tweaking every conceivable linguistic and Coney nuance for your consumption.

el Sl T el res | * 1, "Zoo | $ ý f^ ч | ES ^ 1», r | TH m ИН 1 - zt | dini dogs E + | C + Б | | м | - s сг z ^ | Williams and studio director Ben. Wibberley beget localising games in a two-bedroom flat. “When we started we had to warn clients that even if it looked a bit dodgy, rest assured there is actually a QA company behind the unmarked door at the top of some really dingy stairs,” explains Wibberley. Building on its early success, the outfit soon needed extra hands and began recruiting. "It got to the point when the flat was at bursting point," reflects Wibberley, "Eventually we realised that having 30 people working out of the old place was getting completely ridiculous." | | i B Ben Wibbef, ишо directe | = | илбе £511 065 2

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ТЕ ater A. 1 n t 1 г " x Г-та. f ASI rnc 9: м iege ahd бєлї, журө : , ا ا‎ E EEE a Ж А iy " Т Елене ел ani 0 E i T pm irk ir \) | Т А ' р: IGE 1 2L F ЖЄ 1 اه‎ ds El т Жаат т HUE dL Lr zn 1. ЦЕ al кп ca siari ti га ғ А тз IL MRA di T wis ii Pisos " TAY Ы | [ | EET. "CM | Pay и: ; = ai | "i Me А ave ү LT ы "t A Cm LA META CTE Localising for foreign markets can be a fraught process sitivity and experience Ti «m ae ay | are required if embarrassing mistakes are to m othe vr | WW yta tried to market its ' ated with howls of ya char опсео | ‹ ч ti һе Saige accent sounds like ‘merde’ = ‘shit’ | . A US market, а ia ا‎ Mai ud صدا‎ ul add [3^ түш ыл. O REIR. ust one letter out of a nir ot tt bree consequences, C to do a Dutc panies are keen to мер uch DPA in mistakes to a minimum. The following are | Ti БИ. just a few errors which Babel has remedied through its localisation testing process: t the end of a set of instructions in one game was the English phrase: 'Thank you and | | | Р if. 1 М. | God speed’. The Italian version read: Cha Il mis | : 1 = ? P i t ar b- Dio dalla velocita sia con vol e ve protegga. e Ы ү bill TE This perplexed Italian gamers, who Ai | E LEE i Te s understood the more unfamiliar: 'May the CAP Ead i ry God of speed be with you and protect you.’ MY |; ENG =i [| | i In another game the Spanish translation | | of the word 'load' read 'cagar' - to, erm, КЕ | | Г” [ж MM | take a dump. It should have read cargar ее tl ^ чє t | rr | Опа afa ltalian dies oe net fa ! км =) TW beni = aaa К, E Lu fad EU WEN M and someone will call you bac Deer ЗАН; "LIE Le oe "| = | $ 2 = Sam and 5pm every day Mondi ay to Friday. i tuc s: Ti! [ү- - ГА Jerry, the nickname for Germans in a WWil К ИЕ simulator, was literally interpreted in ۳ as being a specific person. The ce construction eg 'Be careful | Tidy Sea Ze a os wa | ' бн. жу jont know where Jerry is’, continually | . r | re “ч ed players regarding who this Jerry TT mills x "

s, and where he was located.

Babe Ме i Wim is based by Hove's seafront. The location has proved label: tor recruiting foreign FERA. b m i iis from | the nearby universities. During the summer holiday period the’ Babel team expands from 30 to 100 nae д! og Be til = номи WE E ТА TTT

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as a last-minute thing, depending on how many units the territory is expected to buy."

The scope for a company specialising in these often murky and uncharted waters is immense. Imagine.a developer/publisher team based in the US contemplating the release of a text-heavy RPG in Europe. Translating the title for the lucrative French market alone may seem worthwhile, but how about really capitalising on sales by localising for the German, Dutch, Swedish, Italian and Spanish territories? It's a much more sobering prospect. "Units shifted tells its own story," adds Wibberley. "If you have an adventure title, then you may sell twice as many units in Germany as the rest of Europe put together - including the UK."

"I can go to a publisher and say that not only can I do this, but | can do it in a number of languages," continues Wibberley. "It's making people think about it. Knowing that German and French texts are 25 per cent longer than English means that you build your text boxes two centimetres bigger. These people should be saying to developers, 'Use dynamic text boxes and if you can't do that, scrolling'. That's the easiest solution." But simply translating a game into every major European language will not necessarily prove cost effective, "In Sweden, you might not be able to justify the development costs of a Swedish-

uage edition, due to the expected sales figures.

In this case, leave the game in English and translate the packaging and manuals - the so-called 'box and docs' approach,"

From a developer's perspective, localisation is something which must now be considered during the ` conceptual stage. To do otherwise means lost profit

ius ini MM |

Photography:

E Jens Halls, languagi

project Manager

Ш Simon

systems Ш Emanuelle Dunas; language Project manager

and lost time. Past misjudgements have proven expensive. Rik Alexander was a freelance producer on Frogger when the late arrival of territorial comments pushed the development period into freefall. “When we put it into submission the first thing they told us to change was the difficulty,” he admits. “So the developers had to build three levels of difficulty into the game that nobody had planned for or anticipated, It took much longer to release.” Alexander hopes that lessons have been learned, He is now working on Simon the Sorcerer 3D for Hasbro Interactive. The biggest market by far for ‘so that territory's comments

on the game г and its direction take priority. Such

considerations are how key toa game's global Success, Infogrames has reported that one of its driving games Saw an increase in sales. t more than 20 per cent in Australia Just becau

ит

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Martin Thompson

UK retailers had cause for celebration at the

end of 1999 as the size of the British market

grew ahead of any other European country Although Germany is usually imagined as the largest single market, data from Screen Digest reveals that sales in the UK for 1999

topped £986.5m ($1.6bn), compared to Euro984.2bn ($1bn) in Germany. This makes the UK the third largest individual market, after the US and Japan.

More surprising is that for the first time the combined European leisure software market, worth $5.367bn, overtook the US market, which is valued at $5.314bn. Another first is that! the videogame market overtook the video retail market in terms of spending. Another year of rapid growth for Europe, even though people are buying more budget games than ever

A Datamonitor report estimates that online gaming could be worth almost $5bn within four years in the US and Furope. The US market will be worth an estimated $2.8bn by 2004, while the western European market will be worth around $2.1bn, the report predicts. Rising Internet penetration and Internet-capable consoles such as Dreamcast are expected

to contribute to the expansion

But where differences in taste may account for a small drop in sales, legal differences can result in no sales whatsoever. Mortal Kombat and Wolfenstein 3D remain outlawed in Germany, and even LucasArts' bland Dark Forces was a victim of German legislation. Wibberley suggests that a certain amount of forethought can overcome such

predicaments. Swastikas in games are strictly prohibited in Germany, no matter what the context.

- Yet it doesn't take a great deal of imagination to realise that other symbols could be used instead. Not

the best compromise, perhaps, but one which might

avoid the title going on to the pernicious BPS index.

As Wibberley points out: "It is possible to purchase videos of animals having sex with adults in Germany, but show blood in a videogame and it gets banned."

Duke Nukem, however, managed to get away with alot in a wide variety of territories. Alexander agrees

that the game was a unique case. "| guess Duke

Nukem slipped through the folds as it was one of

the first released 3D shooters that went big." he says. “Plus you fragged aliens, not humans, and compared

to games like Quake, of around the same time, it had nowhere near the same level of gore."

But Michael Soutos, a producer at Eidos Interactive, disagrees that Duke Nukem really got away with anything, as it was given an age rating. “This didn't really harm sales as it was a must*have product, broaching subjects that hadn't been done in games before," he says. "For example, the porn film in the cinema or having a pee = not really extreme stutf in today's market, but it was extremely different back then." Unsuprisingly, France is more open to nudity and women going topless in beaches or in bar-room scenes, typical of Duke Nukem. UK gamers, however, will be treated to pixellated bikini tops.

One legal loophole: which Babel is keen to advise on is the opportunity to use branding in games. Product placement is strictly prohibited on television, but remains legal in videogames. Alan Partridge clumsily promoting his Rover 200 оп his own TV show is a broadcasting taboo, but Lara Croft picking up Lucozade bottles to boost health instead of medipacks is the kind of opportunity publishers will find hard to resist in the future. Diese! has already brought its brand to two massive games: King Pin

_ Emanuelle Dumas. » language project manager B Alberto Schiannini,

studio тападег

Rare's decision to drop the importation _ of ріауегѕ' faces into Perfect Dark was | mi- - due to increasing unease in the States B EEE ee Editor: ` over videogame violence. The USA still n remains the most lucrative territory _ and to some extent can dictate global development characteristics. American legislation could have wide repercussions

| LE d L1 : | Simon "m TE

systems manager

- Dorothea Mutzel, language project manager

ij- | | | Дт, | and the soon-to-be-published Driver 2. “These

| are great opportunities for games companies." adds Wibbarley. “Why not have the hero of a game wearing Diesel jeans? You can move into sponsorship. | don't think it's that cynical — you can make it cool."

| Se y eu Perhaps gamers will even eventually get to find out | Germany remains the single largest PC territory outside of the US and only falis behind the UK in aps 9 lyg

| Europe in terms of its console market. Getting a game on to the shelves in Germany is therefore critical Solid Snakes Peres brand of ETO EE $ for publishers. However, the often-confusing legislation and censorship measures in the country have will change from territory to territory, naturally.

seen many titles fail to reach retail

| в кеп ( A future? | Avoiding the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefáhrdende Schriften (BPS) index is key. This federal res

authority was instituted to prevent the publication of materials which might cause ‘confusion or But what ‘ot the future for localisation companies disorientation with res pect то БОС albehaviour or ethics'. But while the index prevents the dissemination such as Babel? Internet gaming and publishing i is of Nazi propaganda, it also covers games which court littie controversy in other countries expected by many to eventually overtake the

А game going on the index effectively kills its sales — the product must be kept out of sight of minors to ensure they do not know of its existence, The BPS isn't meant to censor items from adults, although

solo gaming experience. Datamonitor estimates that online gameplaying could be worth almost $5bn

the costs and loss of publicity mean that there is little incentive to publish a game which wont appear on the shopfloor. Activision didn't even try to introduce Quake I to the aes market. in the US and Europe within four years. But how will One of the more effective, though sometimes risky, ways of avoiding the index is to pay for a USK developers localise for persistent worlds? Babel sees rating. The Unterhalttungssoftware Selbstkontrolle is an organisation supported with federal funding, online gaming as a challenge rather than something but its ratings have no legal standing. The cost of the voluntary USK rating can be as much as it hopes will go away. "For me it's the: next stage," ШШ ттт FTE US$3,000, but may Influence the BPS decision. A game claims Wibberley. "Persistent world scenarios are {| ҮН | ПН iHi ЇЙЇ Ut receiving 14+ will be unlikely to be indexed. However probably the most difficult thing to get right. The UM IU" ATTN be LucasArts’ Dark Forces (left) received а USK ruling of elements in the game are set, but how do you deal 18+ and was later withdrawn from retall after the BPS with stuff after that? How do you deal with translation. ruled it was in violation of decent ethical standards in realtime = is it possible? Quite how we get around.

Should a software title avoid the index, it could still А > | that | haven't quite figured out." ' be subject to German criminal proceedings. Paragraph

130 — ‘public displays of Nazi symbols’ — and section Babel's task would be one of biblical ro cat 131 ‘glorifying violence! — were established to prevent to push human ingenuity and arog do M Kd in

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date are the only two US games confiscated in Germany system be implemented in the near future? The y a foundations are still being іад...

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Edge talks to the team tasked with turning the videogames status quo on its head,

ebruary 14, 2000. The last console | moving Microsoft into the new millennium with the emphasis on play, not work. Who F war is history — the ‘stereo company — — тї RE dreamed up the idea, how did Microsoft approach the logistics of the project, and | the clear victor, with a worldwide | what is it that will set the console apart from the pack, PlayStation2 in particular? installed base of 70m PlayStations. The

| corporations grown fat on gaming am busy preparing for (ће next war. Sega is working on ) and great games. Nintendo is hinting at Dolphin IE. Em | and how it wil retum the company to the top, all LO] te whille insisting the N64 isn't dead yel. Sonyis — i Ru less than three weeks away from unleashing the " nm PS2 on Japan, where it will break all kinds of sales mi Vi Ш оша уде ea aa domination — again. | | But, deep inside Microsoft's HO, Bill Gates

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ОУУ has just given the final approval on X-Box. Should E 0 tteven matter? Microsoft is just some software Lu UU] behemoth trying to get ino the console ере», = Uo | and It fall fat on its multi-bllonaire face, won't it? | HI fmm Doss the com really have a chance ШШ К |... breaking into the console market at the very tine -—— adt | |. when the US Department of Justice is intent on i | breaking it in two? Edge visited Microsoft, talked МАШ lo the X-Box creators about how the project has Ме Ф

developed, and found out how they intend to stir

Ihings up in a contest that is — if you believe

all (hat you read — over before it has even begun. == шиши “it came to me on a plane, of ай places,”

recalls Seamus Blackley. one of the proud fathers

of the X-Box and the initiator of the long (and, на 5

Microsoft hopes. fruitful) launch process. 1 was

| | EDGE #88 | | i | «071»

of the year and | started thinking, "Good lord, we [re make fst опе monstrous son-ot-a-bitch Game console with one of these things.”

Around January "89, Blackley brought the idea to Kevin Bachus, who immediately saw its potential. “We [realised wel could produce something just ike а console, but with all the advantages of the PC,” explains Bachus. given up their day jobs to focus entirely on X-Box. They went to publishers, developers, hardware makers and consumers to find out whal people really wanted. Once they had enough feedback, they pitched the idea to Ed Fries, head of Microsoft Games, to see what he thought. The final key addition to the core team carne m the form of J Allard, the man who brought Interner Explorer to the word (and Microsoft to trial), and who, at the time, was off racing bikes and being all ‘extreme’. They ined to convince him that this “X-Box thing was going to be huge’, to paraphrase one of Allards pre-Expiorer quotes regarding the Internet. But it took a bad racing fall and a broken ankle before he finally joned the team.

Every three months the group would convene the project could have been сапоеёесј – hut й never was. Allard describes Ihe process like this: “We ай went into our own areas. Seamus worked started growing а portiolio, and | started working out the OS. Then we got together and beat the shil out of each other.”

“Much of the process was deciding what lhe X-Box was not going to be,” recalls Fras. “Vested parts of the company wanted other things, but we had to go through focusing the project. It's not about PC game compatibility, WebTV, or productivity." And each time the group decided to further focus the X-Box on gaming, it faced another corporate battle.

Most of the radical ideas about reinventing the console business went by the wayside, but the one thing thal had to be changed with the console model was the development process. As Blackley each time a new system comes out? From a Gevelooment-cost point of view and a quality pont of Mew just doesn't make any sense.”

For the first time ever, a piece of hardware Б being created from scratch by guys who

“We have an opportunity." says Fries. “Once you decide to do something like this without the history Jof a Sony or Nintendo], you can take а fresh look at it. We have an opportunity to fix а lot of what is wrong."

Microsoft's solution? To unite the console business model and desagn with the development methodologies of the PC world = making little fixes

to each along the way. The onginal plan was to launch X-Box in autumn 2000 to go head to head with PleryStation2, but Ва Gates р impressed.

According to Allard: “Bil sad: "Not good enough. If you have some sort of benchmark. you may win, but you wouldn't notes the difference. ‘You have to be able to see the difference’,” So the team went back and upped the X-Bax's specs and processor speed for a 2001 taunch date.

Eventually it all carne down to the fateful February 14 meeting. This was it the final yes or no. It would be the hardest meeting yet. The plan had been narrowed and the group decided what the X-Box wouldn't be. Now It was taking away some of the things that the executives thought would be in the machine. All previous meetings determined whether Project X-Box would keep going or be kiled. “This one,” says Fries, “was get killed or put Bill on stage."

. Allard sums up the challenge facing the | group: “We were selling а new product concept ЙА and a new playbook. А totally new business POTETE model. We're going to have inventory. No

"Fr | PC compatibility. No start button. Thera is а ii

phase where you expand ай of the possiniies, and then start narrowing it down to make й work. Now we had to explain this "

When Bill first heard that the X-Box wasn't going to be PC compatible, he supposedly [as the team impies) started leaning over the table at Allard, saying something to the effect of, Wy т^ "IExpletive]... let me get this straight... [expletive]... it isn't going to be PC compatible."

Still, Allard and the crew wouldn't budge.

“This wasn't what Microsott onginally wanted," Allard explains, "but it is the right machine. Approve it or don't. We aren't changing i." About 9pm on St Valentine's Day (after several desperate phone calls to very perturbed significant others), Gates and Balmer gave it the final okay.

No more explaining or proving = й suddenly became time to make it happen.

Building the box

After getting the green light from Microsoft Employee #1, the group had to start tuming ideas into realities. According to Bachus, “We pretty much talked to every possible supplier of chips until the final decisions were made.” Oddly enough, the one thing that really made the package come together at the right price was the extreme competition (something the DOJ says Microsoft is stifing) drove prices down so that the X-Box was able to gel the best components and hit a price point acceptable to the massmnarket [between $200-9300). -

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on the hardware for the X-Box was what kind of goss as far as to say: “We are building hardware out of necessity. What does the consumer want most? Good games. How do we get that? By gwing the developers ай the tools and hardware they need to do ths.”

"Developers and publishers told us what they wanted," Blackley says of the initial process. | “Being software developers and publishers, we | аге їп а unique position to provide support апа insight. Essentially, the X-Box is a big software | business, with this unfortunate hardware aspect | we had to learn how to deal with. We are making — а console for software. We are a software company. We listened to game makers and they helped evolve the plan."

When the group began to expand, the realisation dawned that the Microsoft Redmond campus had tha resources to handie the whole project. “Is there another company in the world that could do this? | don't think so, because й takes a bunch of differant pieces, especially the

As Edge toured the facilities, it became Quite apparent that Microsoft does have plenty of apparently uniar advantages. The combination of talented, experienced people, incredible resources and a hands-off approach бу management enabled the X-Box team to build its dream machine as and when it wanted. Got | an idea for a new controller? Just give creative director Horace Luke (а one-man design monopoly if ever one existed - break him up | before It's too late) а call, and he'll sketch it out, | render it in 3D, carve it up, and have a plastic prototype in your hands by the end of the day. For most other companies, that whole process could take anything from two weeks to a month. Here, not even a single day.

The one word-changing element of X-Box is its 8Gb hard drive. “On the PS2, you can do a totally photorealistic room,” says Fries, “but once you go through the door, the memory is gone. Then you have to go to a DVD dive with 500 mmiseconds of access time. ft ithe PS2] is made for movies and music, not data retrieval. On the X-Box, you can load data on the intermediate cache ithe hard drive) and get а much more acceptable ten-milisecond access time.” 733MHz processor, 64Mb of unified RAM, the reportedly amazing NVidia graphics card, and the 256-voice sound card, and it's easy to see why Gevelopers, industry experts and gamers = аге geting legitimately excited about the prospects of Microsofts machine.

| i Í | ] h 1 | | IME— «| « : + — | | = | Getting the look bl | T =} | As creative director, Horace Luka is responsible | lee i . for the look and feel of everything X-Box. He "m кессе» - | + | and his team of seven designers/sculptors/ 30 ! I I modden gamers design the controller, the box, I M | - the letterhead, the logo, and even the Etile trinkets T | اا‎ iis) they pass out to ungrateful joumalists. The biggest | meram "| | i | | addidi task, naturally, was coming up with the system and | | the controller. Essentially, the X-Box team gol 4 T | together and brainstormed, figunng no idea is a =! bad idea. The weird, tha sublime, and the plam ugly |] 1 are produced in a fit of total creativity. Then the TES = i- IE і

team has to pull back and tum the machine and controller into something realistic, cost effective, [eee and with that unquantifiable ‘x’ factor ИЩИ. "The gamepad is the face of your console,” [eee says Blackley. “It defines your interaction with the TIT console. You have to look at what you need in the game and what consumers are looking for. Ms critical to get that right.”

While many people assume that the look of the X-Box won't be finished until much closer to launch, they are completely wrong: the X-Box and ен» ттүү: ise near completion (Edge knows because it was allowed to hold Several mock-ups.) | l i mus

шн Н UM ШЇ" Firstparty foundations н) zi Т.

M

As head of the Microsoft Games group, Fries ` м. PITT awe = started four years ago with 100 people. The Y | jm oN - division has grown to employ a little over 500, à | d | EHE and the plan is to add a further 200 internal | | : . i, h K people to the Group in the coming year | | "1 | | Mii

According to Fries: “I'm shooting for 20 to 30 titles from firstparty in the first year, three to four

times from thirdparties, and 100 or so titles ТО

Т

throughout the first year." i The key job for Fries is creating a dynamic |

portfolio of games that will cover all the important categories and give gamers something to really lust after. “What matters is quality," he believes “Quantity only matters to have a good variety Ра The key is to have al least one great game in every important genre.

Fries was less than impressed with Sony's ЕЗ showing. “H's ike the Saturn in а lot of ways: realy hard to get to the main processor,” he says of PS2. “Sony has great developers, and there’ be some good titles. However, И we make Geveoping gasy then developers can spend ther trie raking better games, not fighting with odd technology."

The two biggest concerns about Microsoft firstparty software are the fact that the compar has never бопе a console game, and that it doesn't have any lirsiparty Japanese developers. The first concern shouldn't really be relevant, because Fries and his team completely understand the difference between console and PC games, and their experience developing for the PC will

EDGE i58 075 >»

„Î Halo looks like being one of SP), X-Box's first major titles. It uw will also reach PC, though

< 076 | | EDGE "56

ре а huge advantage in getting the most out of addressed win the opening of a Japanese frstparty Gevelooment an in Japan. Fries guy in the development community of а major Japanese console publisher with some great design credits to his name’.

Because the system is stil well over a year from launch, Microsoft didn't share many specific titles, but it's known that Microsoft's sports lineup (NFL Fever, NBA Inside Drive, Microsoft Baseball) have all been in X-Box development for some time. Microsoft realises that every single winner in the console market has had the best sports games – this isn't a coincidence. Other Microsoft PC games will come over to the X-Box, but only the appropriate titles. ^Me don't want PC games on the ena ME ELE Herpes: Ж тё е o Madness 2, we'll spend а year on the game making sure it takes full advantage of the X-Box Certain PC games just won't translate to the Strategies. and we won't try to make them work.

Thirdparty concerns

Те to the success of X-Box wil be a strong thirdparty lineup. Since X-Box is a US-designed gerne system from an American company, wil Japan's development community support if? “Conversations witha Japanese companies don't go like that." notes Bachus. “They are interested In making money. They want to know our distribution model in Japan. But no-one has said, "You're not Japanese and we can't work with you'." Without naming names, Bachus confidently asserts that: “The X-Box will have plenty of support from big-name Japanese publishers.”

One of the biggest fears surrounding X-Box [в that PC companies will simply port over their tities, but Bachus isn't worried. “There is concern about direct ports, but when you talk to a publisher, they Say that that's death for a franchise,” he says. Ta company is going to produce their racing game for PC and X-Box and make them identical, but their competitors target the X-Box, then the competition A good franchise requires focus for every platiorm it's released on.”

What iind of games wil appear on X-Box? Microsoft is adamant that the console isn't a PC Jr Initially, a very focused, imited amount of titles wil be amed squarely al the target customer for the X-Box: 18-year-old console gamers. There will be some risks, and unusual things that will push the envelope creatively, but the core games wil be very much what you would expect fram a console launch (fighting, RPG, racing, sports, etc).

But is Microsoft too focused on being

another console maker’? Is it afraid fo redehne whal а console game can Ое?

"We're trying to let you know that we get d. refutes Blackley “A big nule in taking fo developers is no surprises. We warn! to tell them Азар + and we went to eam what they want to do so we can help them. We haven set any зівас rules оп whal can or can't make it to tha X-Box. We'll decide on a case-by-case basis. We absolutely

want to have innovative games.”

Exploring online avenues Everyone knows online gaming is the future, but wher is it really going to happen? Microsoft IS including а broadband connection and а hard drive with X-Box, but even it believes that the Internet revolution in Console gaming remains some way off

So what kind of multipkry should you expect from X-Box? "Depends on the game,” Bachus suggests. "Ideally, we'd like both splitscreen and online, but i's very difficult. Some games lend themselves to onina play, while others are better for four guys on a couch and one TV”

iniiai, X-Box wi see more а wir games, with onine ackihions. Over ime there will be more hybncds, and eventually there wa be Games thal але desi ed lor oie рќау. “We are working with а fow compares to figure oul how to do onine кү, and find a Кү app,” Bachus declares. “Anyone who says that they understand how console games are going to work online at this point is a fool." | As PS? advanced game console currently

Edge set side-by-side comparison of the d

Just because Microso understands thea

ecs and features of Sony's console and X-Box

situation doesnt mean there aren’) Бил plans to Incorporate online games.

"From a gaming perspective,” says Allard, “we re coming upon a big change. Network gaming will redefine the medium. Five years from now a solitary game just won't be interesting. The gaming industry is gaing manstinrean and Microsott needs а wake-up, We redefined the way people did work; now we want 10 change the way poopie piny.

But what about games? X-Box s future ts Clearly a bigi чоого one.

but plans generally don't look flawed unti after the fact, as Bachus acknowledges: "If | knew we were forgetting something, then we wouldnt forget it hm sure there wil be some smal thng we wsh we'd have done differently the day the systern unches, but we're extremely conidient thal we've made the nghi choices and provided developers and gamers with an amazing new gaming console,” The only X-Box asue currently unclear в the small matter of games, and ultimately they are the only things that really matter, What's raassunng, though, is that during Edge's visit it was E

X-Box's creators who pointed this out.

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or good old cockney rhyming slang, technology nurtures its own lexicon as the ideas people want to communicate (or even obscure) develop. The transition from 16bit to 32bit, the rise of 3D graphics and the arrival of multimedia and Internet connectivity all changed videogames - and the language used to describe them. Initially, journalists and gamers struggled to get their mouths and heads around terms like polygons, textures and firstperson- perspective shooters. But now schoolkids insult each other's favourite titles using the self-same phrases.

Five years later, both the jargon and the technologies are commonplace, and some

people say such a leap will never happen again. They're wrong. The evolution of computer graphics continues apace, and is being spiced up by the Internet, mobile phones and even Microsoft's entry into the games hardware business. All are changing what people say as much as what they play. Some terms, such as multipass rendering and motion blur, refer to an evolution in techniques that first appeared back in Wipeout's day. But others, such as always-on Internet connections or synthesis cite technology with the potential to change videogaming forever. You can learn a lot about a culture by its language. This is the next-gen lexicon according to Edge: make of it what you will.

I Ii | nih | A6. | il li ' | Jo bis V | `

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Bluetooth

ADSL [/nfernet) Asymmetric Digital melike behaviour is the goal, the process

instead of having to attempt connection to your ISP every time the UT urge strikes, an always-on connection would offer you instant access.

Creatures - a breed-your-own-monster game - was Cyberlife's first attempt at artificial life More than 500,000 users bought into the concept

© 080

Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a broadband technology that enables you to get more out of the copper phone wires heading

into your house. Installing an ADSL box

and connecting to an ISP that supports ADSL could theoretically get you connection speeds tens of times faster than an existing modem - and it's ‘always-on’. But BT has only committed itself to supporting around 512Kbps to begin with, and it keeps delaying ADSL. The service will cost around £40 per month when it arrives

Always internet!) Instead of dialing YON

7

whenever you want to check your email, xowse the Web or play Unreal Tournament, an always-on connection is - hold on to your hats = always on. You pay a flat monthly charge and are connected 24 hours a d Broadband connections via ADS p. iocdems are generally ab A

Artificial intelligence (A/Î The science of

constructing artificial systems that exhibit intelligence in some form is callad artificial intelligence (Al). In this context, intelligence is usually very specific, зо a computer program that plays chess can be considered artificial intelligance. Al tends to involve top- down-specific systems that exhibit 'intelligence' in а very narrow field of application rather than building generál- purpose problem solvers (which are currently mora the domain of artificial life systems),

з (AL) А hard and Te inition artificial life (A-life or AL) is difficu

classed as right enough). The accected detinition is: artificial life is the creation of lifelike behaviours by using large populations

the overarch"e

EDGE 55

is called artificial life. Many metaphols and concepts used in artificial life are derived from nature (such as cellularity, biochemistry and genetics). The field of AL is rich in buzzwords, including areas such as genetic algorithms, flocking systems and agent- based programs. The philosophy behind AL shows great potential for managing complex virtual environments. The Creatures series from Cambridge-based Creature Labs has already introduced complex artificial life theories to gaming

Attenuation maps (JD graphics) An

attenuation map is a more powerful method of describing the light falling on a 3D-scene then a traditional light map. It enables per ихе! point lights and spotlights, and can give the effect of a gradual falling off in shadows

Bezier curves (30 modelling) A cubic bezier

curve is a simple curva, typically with a peak and a trough, and defined by a cubic potynomial function with four contro! points. Changing the control points changes the peaks and troughs of the curve. By plotting the control points in 3D space, you get a 3D cubic bezier curve. Bezier curves are sometimes plotted with just three control points to produce a quadratic bezier curve

Bezier patches (30 modelling) This term

generally refers to a higher-order surface defined by four cubic bezier curves, There are also tnangular bezier patches, such as DirectXB's N-patches, which are

made from three curves.

Bluetooth (hardware) Created by an

international consortium of big telecommunications and electronics companies, Bluetooth is a standard designed to enable devices to ‘talk’ to each other without wires, using short-range radio. їп the future you should be able to send information from your mobile to your laptop

AER un

На ^ da наг. a,

түнү үр ce

BRDF

or from your MP3 hi-fi ta car stereo with ваза, thariks to Bluetooth. It could also lead to devices thal automatically communicate with each other as you move through an environment, say, In your саг

BRDF (30 graphics) Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Functions (BRDF) are a mathematical way of producing the visual affect of light falling on to an object without working out the physics of light interacting with matter. BRDFs range from those of matt materials such as cardboard, which scatter light equally in all directions, through vanously shiny objects and up to a perfect refiective mirror. Fur, hair, and materials like velvet benefit from this technique, as do some metallic surfaces, such as gold.

Broadband (internet) A modem technology with à much larger capacity (and thus faster data transfer rates) than the modems found in today's PCs or Dreamcast (bestowing the latter the label 'narrowband"), A broadband network is a telecoms infrastructure that supports a particular broadband method = the cable television network, for example, or the installation of ADSL routers al local telephone exchanges. You typically connect to a broadband network via a broadband modem such as an ADSL or cable modem, and a common network interface like an Ethernet port or USB connection built into your PC or future console,

B-splines (3D modelling) Basis splines are a specia! way of defining parametnc curves, as used in NURBS rendering. A B-spline is a curve, like a piece of string. A B-spline patch

› a surface made up of B-spline curves.

B-spline patches (30 modelling) The parametric surface function used in the course of NURBS rendering.

Bump-mapping (22 graphics) An object

Community

can be made to look more detailed without using More Polygons via bump-mapping. which simulates small height variations

on the surface of an object by changing the way the light effects are calculated. The process works due to the fact that a bump will usually have one side that is bright from à light source while the other side — the side in shadow — Is dark. Realtime bump- mapping is now supported in most

PC 3D hardware and on Dreamcast.

Cable modem (Internet) A broadband technology that takes advantage of the huge capacity of the cable television networks already wired into many homes. Much faster than standard modems, although mooted speeds are variously quoted fram 256Kbps up to 2Mbps. Since a street of homes is typically connected to a ‘loop’ in the cable network, the local capacity is shared with your neighbours, and so download

are using the service T:

subdivision surface, co-creat® n Catmull = one of the found

Commug "тар F as society, only individuals

ipn of creating a persistent ‘home from „ОП the Internet remains the driving force marketpla creating а com

Pixar founder Edwin Catmull co-created the Catmull-Clark patch. a variety of subdivisional surface popularised in the company's box-office hit

тта Worlds Online: Origin

Origin will take the concept o! a community to its next level by presenting gamers with a persistent universe. Many more ma-too worlds will follow.

Convergence

can buy another game, but they can't buy or transfer the fnends they've made.

Convergence (Hardware) The idea that multitunction devices will replace a set of one-shot products. For instance, the PlayStation2 sees the convergence of DVD movie watching and gaming. Proponents say the confluence of digital TV, the Internet and high-powered games consoles make the economics of convergence unanswerable. Opponents retort that technology gets ever cheaper (making convergence unnecessary), that dual

| function devices seldom perform as

| well as two specific ones (witness PS2's

DVD playback), and that, after 20 years, we haven't even seen the convergence

: of the television and the video recorder.

Curys@ surfaces (30 mode Im Original

Created to help the car industry m^, 4 rounded shapes, curved surfaces are п finding their way into videogames. Id | Software's Quake Ill: Arena was one ot

the first to use them in reaitime. A curved surface is described by a set of curves, Inemselves defined mathematically with Dilicomial functions. Various kinds of luncti mean be used to describe these, curves, such ТЮШ с. US сые с. atc. Several curves are combined to produce a surface known as a ‘patch’. А patch represents a portion of a 3D shape; patches can be stitched together to make entire 3D models. Before the curved surface is displayed it is converted into a traditional polygon model. The advantages of using curves are that they can lead to fantastic and speedy results, they take up less space than highly detailed polygon models, and they can be used to create scalable geometry. Unfortunately, they're also

more difficult to program.

DirectX (X-Box) Bringing order and a measure of consensus to the disparate

Emotion Engine

tribes of the PC community was no small achievement for Microsoft's DirectX teams. (Only à few years ago. developers were cursing the API and swearing to program in OpenGL, 3Dfx's Glide or even bypass Windows altogether). However, DirectX has since achieved an even greater level of importance witn X-Box. Microsoft has been able to point to a readymade and well-known development plattorm for its new machine — an advantage no conga débutante has ever boasted bale.

Dynamics (Physicae branch of physics

programmingif'tat deals with the interactions of forcgglind noid bodies. Developers often ие word as a fancy alternative to

physics’. Closely related to kinematics,

which looks at the movement of bodies over time.

DVD (Hardware) High-capacity optical media

used by PlayStation2, Nintendo and X-Box. DVD (once understood as Digital Video Disc, now Digital Versatile Disc) grew out of a consortium of manufacturers looking to take CD technology to the next level. DVD can store up to 4.7 Gb in its basic version, but also comes doubie-layered and double- sided (ike a vinyl LP) — which, obviously, is capable of stoning more information

Emergent systems (Artificial! intelligence)

Simulations that exhibit behaviour and functionality that is not specifically defined and programmed by the simulation are known as emergent systems. The general approach of artificial life relies on emergence to create complex behavioural responses out of small, simple systems, where behaviour emerges spontaneously.

Emagfon Engine (PlayStation З. Cog

I PlayStationa. It's just a maths pro cor ke any other, and only the hype has madh afWpne cry so far = as per Sony's promise whe ihe CPU was announced.

id's latest instalment of its hugely successful firstperson senes features curved surfaces which serve to deliver a more organic-looking Gameworid.

Instead of giving Its new CPU a nondescript label, sony called its PlayStation2's heart the Emotion Engine. Has it made any Edge reader cry yet?

Reflective surfaces in games can be generated via environment mapping. іп GT2000 it's possible to see mirrored images of your own car on others

General Packet Radio Switching could see the data transfer rate to mobile phones equal that of current PC modems, presenting a new raft of opportunites

Environment mapping

Genetic algorithms (Artificial intelligence

Environment тарр ^ graphics) ЇЙ

games, this tial involves applying a genenc lure (such as ‘world’ or 'sky')

to а ес! to give the appearance of a Mid е surface, The effect is also otg ied. as in Gran Turismo. Ideally, thgPactual vironment would be rendered тепте (Se reflection mapping). Сабе combined With (oo ишы НМЕ lo mimic windows and other glass objects,

Episodic (Misc) Instead of coming complete

in a box, some argue that games should be delivered in smaller portions via the Internet. At its simplest, this could simply involve cutting games up, as Is done by the free games site freeloader.corm. More interestingly, games could be divided into ‘episodes’ and updated al regular intervals = say every Thursday night. Keen gamers across Ihe Country would then play the

part of the game on the same night and

таж about п the next day, like a зоас. ш Similarly, episodes could Боо real-life events. Games reset paid for by айуеги И play or even bought as Bene! of packages, similar to today's

Satellite deals.

G3 (Mobile phones) Third-generation mobile

phones (G3) will arrive in 2002 to take advantage of UMTS. They are expected

lo have colour screens rivalling handheld games consoles, enabling tham to access movies and music and act as videophones. One thing is already certain = they'll also cost a fortuna.

-

Just like any other computer program, genetic algorithms are programs made up of a number of different commands However, the sequence of commands

in a genetic algorithm is called the ‘genome’,

and each and every one of these can be randomly mutated to create a differen! algorithm. By breeding millions of these

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algorithms, and measuring the ‘fitness’

of each one against the standard of the а required result, it is possible to use natural selection and evolution to breed a program that solves a problem,

Giga (Hardware) A gigaop is a measure of the number of operations that a processor executes per second. One gigaop is thousand million operations (an American billion). Similarly, a gigapixel's graphics chip can fill a thousand million pixels per second, Gigabytes have already replaced megabytes asa measure of hard disk capacity. Next stop, the terabyte — which consists of one million million bytes

GPRS obi/e phones) General Packet Насо Switching (GPRS) is the next big leap forward for the mobile Internet, due in 2001 it could double the data transfer rate of High Speed Circuit Switched Data to match the speed of PC modems, allowing faster access to WAP Web pages for tese using mobile phones,

Haptic interface (Hardware) Machines that are controlled by a human hand according to the force it applies. Most commonly used in virtual reality and robotics, these are Usually two-way interfaces in that they give teedback to the user about the object being manipulated such as mass and applied forces. An example is an advanced virtual reality glove that enables you to 'pick up' 3D objects and place them eisewhere onscreen,

Higher-order surfaces (20 modelling) The result of describing a 3D model matnematically, most commonly using curves,

HSCSD (Mobile phones) High-Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) increases connection speeds to the mooie Internet via a WAP mobile phone to 28Kbps Should arrive by the end of 2000.

Maria

Nintendo's flagship icon is the ultimate slice of IP The company has made millions from licensing his image for use on toys, clocks, pillows and beyond.

Legend СИ Zelda: Ocarina Of Time

The inciusion of interactive music in games such as Zelda (as dusk falls] and Mario 64 (when Mario approaches water) is a growing area for designers.

HTML

HTML nternet) Hypertext Mark-up

Language (HTML) is the language used

hat pages look like and the hyperlinks that enable you to browse from page to раде. Prescient developers are looking to incorporate HTML into their games, and some of the big graphics packages have suggested they will support HTML links in game art models,

IDTV (Hardware) Interactive Digital television

(IDTV) rolls out in the UK later this year, and cable companies such as NTL are already readying a range of games to accompany

it. Current non-digital titles are limited mostly to quiz and card games, but the companies claim that future boxes will support more advanced games and link into TV shows using streaming video and sound

LLink (PiayStation2) Sony's name tor

(EEE 1394, the powerful standard for connecting consumer audio/visual devices to PCs that was invented by Apple (and called Firewire), IEEE 1394 offers a high- speed transfer rate (up to 200Mbps) through pretty cheap hardware, and supports hot pluaging so you can simply stick your digital camera into your computer or PlayStationa without restarting, Convergence, you cry?

Interactive Mus

changes J

practive music, pay attention to how t 3 changes when Mario approaches t

such as zie in Star Wars’) | discordant as time runs out in a puzzle game, lending a further cinematic element to videogaming

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ectual property (Misc) іп саг intellectual property (IP) consists of ye products that a developer creates and that it or its publishers hold the rights to. Game names, characters, design and implementation are all IP. Usually protected D mia! laws, the critical except traditionally beer! Tess A developer can invent, say, sideways scrolling, and Its particular implementation in that game can be copyrighted, but only a patent protects the actual concept. Traditionally, patents have been very difficult to obtain but there are signs that this state of affairs is changing = with potentially drastic and restnctive results. іп any event, IP plays an increasingly important role in games, with publishers often signing products because they believe the IP will De valuable in movies, toys, adverts or other games.

Kinematics (3D graphics) In graphics, a

method of relating each joint in an animated figure to the limb it ts attached to, making anything from walking to sword-fighting

look more realistic. For forward kinematics, changes in the angle of a joint (an elbow, say) will produce changes in the end position of the connected limbs. Inverse kinematics (IK) looks at the end points of the limbs, then works back to derive the corresponding angles at the joints. It sounds straightforward but is mathematically nightmarish, so in game animation shortcuts are usually

taken. (IK is also used In robotics.)

See also: dynamics.

LOD (3D modelling) Level of detail (LOD)

refers to the number of polygons making up a particular model. Since any computer or console can display only a finite number of polygons at an acceptable frame rate, the LOD of 3D models is carefully managed using a vanety of techniques. Using low LOD models for distant objects and a higher LOD for those in the foreground has long been the standard method, but dynamically varying

Middleware

the model's polygon count using progressive

meshes is becoming more common.

Middleware ji „ЛЕНД: anticipated

tne diifulties of programming its

семе although it's worth nating that the term TTE ا‎ ср 3r science (with a lower-case 'm') for years.

Mobile Internet (Internat) The Intemet as seen by wireless WAP devices such as mobile phones or paimtops. Differs from the conventional Internet because current devices cannot read usual Web pages. only the WAP-enabied variety

Morphing (3D modelling) By altering the position of a model's vertices in realtime, it can be stretched (or morphed) into new shapes

Motion b

example, a photograph of a moving racing

car will either show a blurry car or a blurry

background. Motion blur is a technique that mics this effect, either in hardware lë

as in se 3 tware

(it's commonly used in Hollywood animation)

Multi-pass rendering (99 graphics) With the proliferation of graphical enhancement techniques such as realtime lighting, bump- mapping. volumetric effects, and so on, the traditional realtime plot/paint/shade display pipeline has been modified. Graphics hardware now enables a surface to make several ‘passes’ through the pipeline, with successive techniques being applied to

Persistent

combine to produce the enhanced finished surface for display.

Non-linear (Misc) Опе of дараа vn is to tala TS un the linear path that Mey re used to and instead let Them choose how to finish a ‘non-linear’ story, where they decide how the plot develops by their actions. Current non-linear games tend to be sprawling and dull, due to the difficulties of creating excitement and tension іп a non-linear narrative.

NURBS (3D modelling) Non-Uniform Rational B-Soline (NURBS) surfaces are higher-order surfaces defined using parametric curves. NUHBS surfaces are really an extension of b-spline patches, which are themselves an extension of bezier patches. NURBS can be reduced to bezier patches for rendering purposes. NURBS surfaces are the method of choice for creating high-end animated movies in Hollywood, but they are computationally intensive, making realtime use in games difficult. For instance, many thought NURBS surfaces would be the technique of choice for PlayStation2, but so far traditional polygon modelling has prevailed, with most developers looking to the less-demanding

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curved surface techniques, NURBS can too rounded for some game artists' taste.

Patches (3D modelling) Bezier patches, grid patches, N-patches and the like are 3D surfaces that can be stitched together to produce 3D models.

Persistent (Internet) Games like Sim City are persistent, in as much as the world you create is saved ready for next time. But more important are persistent online games such as Ultima Online, where other players can continue to engage themselves in the persistent world while you're not connected. Future persistent garnes will probably

trato oc

Stunt Sguan

The Renderware engine that forms the basis of Criterion title Stunt Squad is a prime example of the middleware touted by Sony for PlayStation2

Metal Gear боші 2

The impression of motion blur is a trick used in games to give the feeling of speed or motion, and mimics the way the eye perceives a moving object

Physics

support Al agents that look after your interests while you're offline, and links 10 email or WAP phones so you can be alerted to any emerging

Phys a ysics) Physics programming

aeierally involves solving differential Fouations to discover how a set of variables react to each other and change over time. There's nothing particularly new about physics programming in games. Fist simulations have included peas models zince the ear Slee (ne SOS saw programmers such as Geoff Crammond applauded for the convincing physics simulations in titles like F7 Grand Prix. Even the PlayStation has seen games пке thal focused on physics, such as Colin McFiae Rally (Codemasters' TOCA Touring Cars has inferior physics due to the need to simulate more than one car). However, with more graphics processing being handled away from the CPU, interest in complex physics

is growing. Imagina if instead of going into an animation routine, the exact effects of a ten-foot fall on poor Mario were simulated Or if blasting through the floor in Quake IV caused the ceiling to collapse on the individuals below. The potential of such daunting physics has seen middleware companies such as MathEngine spring up

to offer physics engines to developers. Some developers say talk of truly realistic physics in games is nonsense, pointing out that even very simple balancing problems or fluid mechanics are computationally very intensive - and why simulate the sea accurately If the player is just concentrating on blasting the boat in front’? Approximate methods are often sufficient since games are very tightly constrained: the laws of game physics need only apply to the main principles in the gama, not the texture-mapped sun overhead

Positional audio (Sound) Also known as 3D

sound (and surround sound), positional audio involves creating ã 3D soundscape where

Programmable pipeline

the volume and timbre of sounds varies according to the position of the listener = ie the player. For instance, if 8 улагы ий from the НЕЕ storey building 100 NES away, positional audio enables the listener to perceive it as such. Various Dolby methods are used in cinema, television and in some games, but it's not currently feasible to encode them in realtime, which limits their use in Interactive content. Other methods have been explored by Creative Labs and Aureal (the latter now resting in peace).

Procedural М @еѕ (20 gram stead

of сод па and shading a 3D обест ДА a nyffidi-painted texture, the surface рана caf be described mathematically. By coating an algorithm to control this manermatical function, the appearance of the Nature can be altered in realtime, as vis done S"gjccesstully by Linrea/s enginediib produce shi гю pools of water 2d

similary strong erem

Progressive mesheg V oder

Instat eating а vanous Tied TROT gon model for use in games, developers сап create опе very high resolution model and then modify the number of polygons

it consists of in realtime, as pioneered by Shiny’s Messiah. Progressive meshing is

d aaidorithrmic technique that successively repa yo connected polygon edagioy one edge, so ligu ому foul er o! polygons in a model. The benefits of progressive meshing (also known as realtime tessallation) is vou need to produce only one model, the meshes can be altered according to CPU power, and detail can be bested up on demand — if you zoom in on a face, for instance. The main disadvantages are that texture mapping a changing polygon model is tricky and that no algorithm can yet produce an attractive low-polygon model

as successfully as a human artis!

Programmable pipeline /Х- Вох! DirectX

. 0:05.43

Physics engines strive to generate the impression af real-world interaction between objects. Colin McRae Rally's engine proves especially believable

The appearance of procedural textures in Linreal Tournament delivers realtime graphical effects that bring a new dimension of life to the gameworld.

Sniny's title pioneered the process of progressive meshing, whereby the level of detail on a model can alter in realtime according to the coder's whim

As videogame characters move further into the mainstream, interest is growing In repurposing their images and the technology used to generate them

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Videogames enjoy a highly technologically-literate audience, many of whom get their hands dirty with mods, making them pioneering game prosumers

Prosumers

sees Microsoft moving to a more flexible graphics arc chieti which gives Windows developers greater control over the graphic effects in their games. The process of rendering and texturing within Directs happens in a ‘programmable pipeline’

and it based around what Microsoft describes as pixel shaders and vertex shaders. The bottom line is that PC - and X-Box - programmers should be free to build мог rendering engines thay choose, without Digg forced to use straight polygons, раї а NURBS or any other process. Some lead developers had voiced concerns that МЕЛ р! would bow to 3D hardware makers’ demas to support specific methods of rendering. Мота: developers аге already saying that the TN. shaders hark back to the good old days when every codeshnop had is own Signature

rastensing —

Prosumé@rs (Misc) Middleware and с еар ПЕС to is Could see gamers ta, в Fore active role in game creation. guch gands-on gamers are termed 'pgiisurmners , А concatenation of 'professiogilff consumers’ | evel designers and Оиз басһ hackers Wc pioneer prosumaa

Quad patch (3D modelling) ^ type of higher- order surface made out of three quadratic bezier curves (possibly after Carmack). Others call such three-edged patches a ‘tri patch’, and reserve the name quad patches for patches with four edges

Rational surfaces (9D modelling

Described by Tom Forsyth at Mucky Foot as a freaky concept that's not easily explained," he term ‘rational’ is nonetheless frequently bandied about at development conferences and in interviews. Rational essentially refers to a particular mathematical treatment of curves. The bottom line is that using rational curves and surtaces offers more control

For example, rational bezier patches сап

087 Scalable geometry

escribe conic sections such as spheres

and rods, whereas non-ralional ones i cannot produce them perfectly, which is why Carmack used the former for his architecture in Quake lii: Arena

Realtime audio modelling (Sound) Instead of simply sampling a trundling vehicle, say, sorne developers are experimenting with building tha engine out of layers of sound for the engine, gears, the wheels and so on, Eventually, sounds could be created according to physics models and the properties of the objects emitting the sound

Reflection mapping (2D graphics) This technique enables objects such as mirrors or shiny cars to reflect the scene around them. Only recently has realtime reflection map rendering Сосон _ Mary Семе в the terms rene tm тару гд 2aipn'environment mapping ҥтїөгсһаги Аар

Mepurposing (Misc) Taking the intellectu property created for one media to апо! format. As the toolkits used to create gages and movies converge, there could be a оме towards developers creating super-hiqg resolution models for FMV or айуеп work, and then scaling down — rag posing - their models for games. In ggasi, entirely чёп models ИГ software packages are used today for, say, the Lara Стой drink adverts, the in-game FMV, and the relatively low-resolution model

Rigid bodies (Physics) A body with a set of properties or constraints (such as mass and shape) that do not change over Time is termed a rigid body. Physics in games is almost always concerned with ngid bodies. More complicated bodies can be built out of smaller ngid bodies = for instance, a human being can built out of rigid ams and legs.

Scalable geometry (3D modelling) The huge variance in the 3D processing power of

Simulation Synthesis

today's PCs has led developers to explore would pay per play for games, rather than methods of scaling their graphics to match buying a complete title in the shops. (Games a consumer's system. Scalable geometry at today's sizes would require broadband can Бе adapted in realtime to increase or modems to stream effectively. Streaming decrease visual quality while maintaining is also very important for live broadcasts, an acceptable frame rate. Advanced where there is no complete file to download levels of detail (LOD) techniques such at all, as the broadcast is ongoing. as realtime progressive mashes employ scalalaedeiag V. Sub-division surfaces (30 modelling) As popularised by Pixar, sub-division surfaces diffar from most progressive graphics : | Te techniques in that instead of reducing the Flight Simulator 2000 complexity of a high-resolution mash, a eee | lower-resolution опе is given higher detail, Simulations have always attracted a hardcore i 3 і New vertices are successively added following. and it has reached the point where ' Куа" . videogames are used in training for real-life events =. p two varieties: emulations and between existing ones to create new edges, models. Ж bation is where the pasilfTar until the desired resolution is reached. As pretends to be the sone ЕТС: more vertices are added, objects appear simulated, whereas a model is where the to become smoother and edges can appear program is the something. On complex curved. The key advantage of subdivision simulations, models will always give the surfaces is that they are much more flexible best results, as you do not need to code than NURBS, and artists are already skilled each and every response in the simulation. at creating detailed polygon meshes.

Soft bodies ^ ® d mgh-end animation packages to simulate 8 effects for materials such as cloth and hair.

Sticky (internet) Internet surfers can leave a chasing you from behind or hear angry ! site as easily as they found it - how long they berate you from a certain section of the linger is a measure of how ‘sticky’ the site is. Very sticky sites hold the attention for long periods of time, although not all the best | sites are sticky. (Search engines, for a multi-Spearer Scr-up, but vanous software

| | EGOS DLS. ik instance, typically send you to new sites, methods have been devised to fake the | The audio dimension of gaming is set to get a Lu but you return to them repeatedly.) Addictive sensation from just two speakers. huge boost with surround sound capabilities being s ; i j implemented in games like Rare's Perfect Dark games can provide sticky content for Web : sites and WAP phones. Synthesis (PlayStation?) A woolly term popularly associated with Sony's Streaming (/nferne!) First used to describe PlayStation2, which essentially means the

music in the RealAudio format = which you mathematical derivation of behaviours or can begin to hear even before the music file effects with an algorithm, rather than the has finished downloading = there are now application of predetermined routines to companies investigating streaming games give the appearance of such effects. For Current techniques basically ‘trick’ your PC instance, you might generate a fractal into thinking that a remote file on the Internat landscape for a flight simulator rather than is actually on the CD or hard disk. Gamers draw one by hand, or instead of running a

|

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T&L

firework animation, you could use a particle physics system that simulated the explosion in realtime, leading to visually unique results. The vector units of PS2 are general maths crunchers devised to make synthesis a realistic proposition. But guess which method FantaVision uses?

TAL (ID graphics | a ^

(T&L) is that ess by which the ca- ordinal a 3D model are plotted in 3D OP S. anstorm) and then the effects of

D, freeing Doce ; eEhtrate on other PMasks such as А! or physics

Tessellation (3D modelling) The algorithmic

addition of polygons to a 3D model. Parametric surfaces (such as bezier patches and Subdivision surfaces) are tessellated into lots of triangles for display,

Tweening (Graphics) Some art packages

and upcoming graphics hardware can take

a beginning, middle and an end position for a 2D image or 3D model and fill in the frames ‘in between’ - leading to the technique being termed 'tweening'.

UMTS (Mobile phones) The Universal Mobile

Telecommunications System (UMTS) will be ready in 2002. it will be used by G3 mobile phones, which will take advantage of its 2Mbps bandwidth to download video and music on demand. Licences to use UMTS were recently auctioned by the UK government for more than £20bn to operators such as Vodafone and Orange.

USB (Hardware) The Universal Serial Bus

(USB) is a flexible standard for peripherals that was originally created for desktop

computers. Its chief advantages ага that it's relatively fast (compared to the old serial and parallel ports) and that up to 127 USB devices can be added (о a system. Now found in PlayStation2.

Volumetric textures (2D graphics) Mog

accurately describe NeT TEXIUTES ,

О ИХигЕе5 are textures with three Pensions. Instead of just a flat 2D texture, a volumetric texture consists of a cube of texels. Because the texture is a 3D cube, artists сап make a wood grain or marble pattern run all the way through an object. If

a player blows a bit off, the surfaces revealed will have the right pattern and match up at the seams. One drawback is that 3D textures devour memory — a single 256x256x256 16bits-per-pixel texture takes up 32Mb

3D textures can be used efficiently in other ways. For example, you can make a 3D texture with a very small third dimension of, say, four slices, with a type of landscape in each slice. In the first 2D layer you put a sandy texture. In the second, grass. In the third, rock. In the fourth, snow, By texturing the landscape with the height of the landscape entered as tha third co-ordinate, the mountain peaks аге shown as snowy, the beaches sandy, and there are smooth blends between them. 3D textures are a general tool with rnany uses. Not much 3D hardware supports them yet, but it will,

WAP (Mob//gg@enes) Wireless App

5yjces, such as mobile phones and 'andhelds. At WAP's heart is the Wireleg Markup Language (WML) and the accompanying WMLScript. Content is encoded in WML and read on WAR ones or other devices with в мш Es cannot view standard HTML Web pages. Many developers, including Rage and - UbiSoft, are working on WAP garnes. "i

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Transform and lighting represents the real

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Wirotess Apoication Protocol

The games industry is currently split over the development of tithes for mobile phones that have WAP-standard browsers built into them

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Edge

Titles slowing productivity this month

Mario Tennis 64

Originally expected 10 go head to head with this month's excellent Virtua formas, Mario's version wes delivered jist too late for inclusión.

TOCA 2: Touring Cars

Беле WTE tored two Edge members jo dust of the office's PS ink cabe anc enjoy ore О! the best Twopiayer racing experiences avataoie on 3204

Perfect Dark

The premier firatperson experdenos continues 1o aat inte precious Seep time, despite relaunch duties. Bin the lame storne; lap up the revolutionary gadqgetry

~ f 1 Iii

Marvel vs Capcom 2

The staying power of this ttip ig up There with Soul Calibur aua tn Ine shee hube of Sages, costumes nnd ornwusctens to be untocked - wih batter mat

Truth (sometimes) hurts

orrespondence indicates that the general consensus ‘among readers is that Edge marks games harshly, If that's the case, then expect it to become still more severa.

This is inevitable, of course, By taking the apparently radical step of regarding five as the average mark on a scale af one to ten, which would correspond to a game that is reasonably entertaining without straining to introduce novel gameplay concepts or offer remarkable levels of playability and/or longevity, Edge's scoring inevitably appears at odds with that of the majority of other publications.

As any true reviewing process is progressive, a5 games improve the overall average increases qualitatively, and scores subsequently come down. You'll therefore find that current games are scoring lower than if they had arrived at an earlier date. Timely examples are this month's TOCA World Touring Cars and Grand Prix 3. A year ago, these would have attained nine-out-of-ten scores with litte trouble. Yet the racing genre has developed massively over the past three years, with a steady stream of quality releases. As such, an average racing game is no longer the dreary experience of a few years back — as either Ridge Racer V (below) or Shutokou Battle 2 attest. Anything above five deserves purchasing consideration, while a nine for a racing game nowadays would require a supremely playable and remarkably comprehensive game (preferably with myriad gameplay innovations).

Outrageously, Edge staffers have been accused of not actually liking videogames, hence its strict scores. The Edge team's combined garning experience currently spans 165 years, dating back to 1975. In the 25 years since, the very best and, occasionally, the very worst gaming has to offer has been loaded up, slotted in or spun around in a formidable list of hardware. Every member of the editorial team is a devoted gamer, and what little spare time is left outside of work too often involves electronic entertainment around a cathode-ray tube.

No one here enjoys dishing out poor marks. Substandard games don't take the medium forward, and the magazine will not tolerate underdeveloped, inadequately designed or exploitative titles to keep publishers or advertisers happy. Edge treats its audience as intelligent individuals capable of handling an honest appraisal of a game. If any aspect of any game affects its playability, chances are you'll read about it in an Edge testscreen, and the score will inevitably strive to reflect the game's true value.

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Grinding along precarious roofs and guttering is automatic once your skates touch the track. Multiple tricks and leaps can be made for additional points

Jet Set Radio

Format Dreamcast Punisher Sega Developer Smile Bit Price: ¥5,800 (£36) — Pelease- Out now (Japan)

E ears that Jet Set Radio is a game M that places style over content

should be eliminated immediately. The vivid cartoon graphics and much-talked- about cel shading combination could certainly have provided convenient excuses for Sega's development team to produce a poor man's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, but Jet Set Radio updates the skate grind genre with a depth and vibrancy which can be breathtaking.

The premisa is simple: rollerblade around areas of the local city tagging the territory to establish your gang s authority. The tag areas are indicated һу large red arrows; green arrows provide locations for bonus points. Cleverty, individuals from opposing gangs can be seen spraying ther logos around ine environment as you play = crashing into them, stealing their paint canisters and daubing over their work ts just one of the many subtle joys provided by the game. The aim is to spray over all rival tags and secure the area before time runs out

If this was all JSA offered, then complaints about Sega shallowness would be justified. However, the design of the levels married with the strategies which must be employed to complete your area most effectively serve to enliven and deepen the gameplay experience. It quickly becomes apparent that your supply of spray cans is limited, and although they do eventually reappear, thought has to be put into collecting them at the most appropriate times. Tags, too range from the very small (requiring one can of paint) to the very large (which require anything up to 12 cans). Run out of paint and your time is compromised by having to skate off to collect more.

Enemies ranging from the local police force to Molotov cocktail-carrying maniacs

also threaten to о hamper your progress AS

This is one of the most assured games in recent years; that the gameplay matches the Stylistics shows an almost arrogant confidence

092

the tags are completed. these enemies pay you more attention and increase in number. For larger surfaces, commands must be followed with the analogue controller to spray the paint efficiently. spending dangerous time spraying the

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In large crowd scenes slowdown does, unfortunately, emerge. Such moments are thankfully infrequent and certainly do not spoil the overall JSR experience. Characters leap out of the way when you approach

larger murals while helicopter homing missiles assall your position is a mistake you'll only make once. Completing the st, while there are fewer eventually becomes a necessity indeed, the deeper you go into the game the more involving it becomes. The narrative is provided by pirate radio DJ Professor K — once each section of the city has been secured he delivers a suitably quirky appraisal of the current situation After uniocking all the areas and literally painting the whole town red, the local crime syndicate threatens to spoil your fun. Henchmen complete with sungiasses, moustaches, perms and laser- sighted weapons must be defeated to

larger tags fir enemies

unlock the next city: the humour and intelligence with which the plot progresses is extraordinary. Add generating your own tags with an editing and design facility, and there is enough here to consume many hours of your leisure time usn around the Jef Set Radio

world is a hoot in itself - a wide range of grinds, “fips and tricks can be performed with relative ease. Though the aerial gymnastics are more limited than those of the Tony Hawk s titles, they tend to be significantly mora intuitive - combos, wall gnnas and rail grinds can be performed with the push of one button and a movement on the analogue stick. Landing directly on a distant rail after leaping and

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The player begins with three skaters, though others join your gang once you have completed their training mission. Cleverly, the lessons learned (such as wall jumping) will be required on the next leve!

exhilirating experience. Camera lag hamr ynina at times

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uc апо exira missions are игиоскео pertorm a (raining run and the instructor joins your team. Each has their own distinctive look, moves, attributes and even dance routine, At certain points races must be won against your own team members; dodging, grinding and making your way to a tag point on tha

other sida of the city while doggedly

keeping ahead of a colleague is just one of the more impressive sub-qames

Indeed, look closely and JSA offers a

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credentials should be ashamed

Edae rating: Eight out of ten

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Marking a new era of graphical representation

The transition from 2D to 3D during the previous console skirmish became a defining factor in game presentation and saw the Saturn fall by the wayside. The push towards ‘realistic’ representation has yet to cause anything like the stir Super Maria 64 instigated. Jet Set Radio opts for a new approach and pulls It off with a great deal of panache. The decision to create the style of a 2D cartoon world which actually operates within a three dimensional physic ts nothing short of audacious and stunning. The fact that it also plays supremely well is testament to Sega's creative foresight and experience, Expect imitations.

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The training options on the oneplayer World Circuit mode also reward you with prize money, but harder levels may well leave you screaming in abject despair

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Format. Dreamcast

Publishar: Sega

ther than a couple of notable efforts

О from Namco over the last decade

d а particularly commendabie attempt бу Nintendo on Game Boy, there hasn't been a racket-and-ball affair that has grabbed gamers with the same titanium- coated hydraulic grip of the SNES's Super Tennis some nine years ago. Criminally, recent ventures have concentrated too hard

on realism at the expense of gameplay. How

ironic, then, that one of the most authentic looking digital tennis endeavours should also turn out to be the most playable yet ike selected Dreamcast

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Virtua Tennis, | titles before it arcade game. Its mariage of simple two button control and sumptuous aesthetics proved too tempting for most, even luring non-gamers and the most casual of tennis tollowers into their nearest arcade Unsurprisingly, then, the home version offers the same five-stage, two-game international tournament. Visually identical to its coin-op parent, including flawless presentation impressive attention to detail effective replays and exquisite animation

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DC Virtua Tennis also retains the exceptional playability that has led it to enioy great pope in the arcades

а Tenns than à straightiorward arcade port, of course. Most significantly, the game introduces a doubles mode, 30 it's nowt friend to either partner up and take on the CPU opposition or stand on орох

of the net gigi your artificially intelligent

jossible for you and a Sê Sides

team-mate. The way these react to the

and intuitive qualities

action is remarkable, swapping sides, adapting their game to yours if necessary and generally behaving like a real-life tennis partner. The resuiting rallies offer some supremely satisfing gameplay, drawing the player lids into the action

Four players can take part. and you May as well make use of the game's exhibition mode at this stage (tourplayer action in the arcade opbon E poss ошт the tournament structure — wnereby ine losing side is eliminated after the EE round - renders it rather pointless). Giv

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Developer. In-house

Price: $40 (E27)

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Games

Каівава: Qut now (US) September 8 (UK)

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The World Circuit option is Virtua Tennis main mode for those with few joypads. It's a substantial, well-structured oneplayer package, giving you the chance to take one of the eight players initially available lal modeled on a rea jet pro equivalent)

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Replays make liberal use of dramatic angles and

zoom effects, The less playable alternative view (tap)

combining it with directional controls determines the nature of your shots - suddenly, your range of retums opens up in an impressively Comprehensive manner. The game is playable using the D-pad, but the analogue stick offers superior control in terms of shot placement and length, even if things may feel a little odd at first for anyone graduating from the digital tennis games of yesteryear. However, even habitués of these titles should find themselves seduced by Virtua Tennis, revelling instead in the unalloyed addictive and intuitive qualities of the genre's most accomplished example to date. Were it not for the irritation caused by the almost unbeatable players in later stages and the inability to play more than a single set per match, Virtua Tennis would have

been a near-pertect sports gama.

Edge rating: Eight out of ten

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The leng lengths Sega has gone to recreate the feel

of a pro tennis match are exemplary. Ball boys, linesmen and tne crowd are all animated. Clouds passing overhead obscure the action, On clay the spots where balls land are clearly visible, while umpire adopt the language of the country where the game is being played, and players facial expressions alter depending on the shot being played. Masterful touches all.

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During play, your VM unit displays a crude interpretation of the onscreen action. While it's possible to play the game by staring at the tiny LCD screen, why you'd want to is unclear

Deus Ex

Format: PC (reviawed), Mac Publisher: Eidos Developer; lon Storm — Price; £40 Неіваѕе: August

fter the unholy mess of Homero's

b Oaikatana, Deus Ex ~ a project headed by Warren Spector — perhaps represented an immediate opportunity for developer lon Storm to make up some lost ground, Early reports touted it as a dark, "The Matrix - inspired adventure, or a near-future RPG, or a Half-Life-beating firstperson shooter. A took at the finished product shows the reason for the confusion: Deus Ex 15 all it promised to be and more, spectacularly defying all attempts at pigeonholing.

The player takes on the role of JC Denton, an agent for a post-LIN peacekeeping force called UNATCO, dedicated to fighting a war against terrorism in a future world ravaged Dy poverty and disease, Tha disease in question is the

Denton’s body has been engineered Э ee UNATCO; Denion s mind — your mind — i having doubts about whether he should m SO

‘Gray Death', and the only known remedy is the drug Ambrosia, which is being hoarded for those in positions of power and infiuence. в terrorists have targeted Ambrosia, and are demanding its distribution directly to the people. Ethically, they have a point Beginning just outside New York, the game is extravagant in its locations, taking you to Hong Kong, Paris, Area 51 and beyond. The Lineal engine, improved with enhanced lighting and a more realistic physics model, renders васп with an occasional beauty, albert mainly due to the sophisticated level design. These are 3D mazes carved from cities, each holding secrets, a mass of non player characters, and multiple problems to overcome Every location holds a series of game- critical primary objectives, but talking to NPCs will often trigger secondary tasks Though these tasks are often unrelated to the mission in hand, solving them will sometimes provide information that is either helpful or serves to advance the storyline. It's this freedom to act upon or ignore information that holds the key to the game's success. Games often claim muitiple completion methods, but rarely achieve their goal with this much variation and style. Stealth, sniping, destruction, intelligence, careful planning, murderous rampages — all have their place within the multi-layered mission structure. ls it a Metal Gear Solid clone,

Making the correct choice of weapon in each situation is crucial. A sniper rifle might be perfect for some situations, but not for a fiamethrower-wielding quard at close range or in a boardroom shootout

096

a Doom-style killíest? As the game morphs seamlessly between genres, adapting your tactics can be an advantage, but is rarely an absolute necessity.

Completion of goals, both primary and secondary, is rewarded with skill points with which Denton's core abilities can be improved. While skill advancement in many RPGs merely affects your destructive capabilities — weapon range, close combat, or magic — choosing how to spend your accrued skill points is crucial to the path you'll take through each level. Advance in electronics and you'll be able to disable security networks with increasing ease. Choose heavy weaponry and develop your ability to blast holes in things.

Combat methods, in particular, are massively varied. Faced with a roomtul of guards, you can use heavy explosives to take as many down as possible in one blast, or just ao in all guns blazing in the manner of a traditional FPS. Alternatively, you can go for head shots with a sniper rifle. or sneak in and siiently dispose of individual guards with a knife or stun gun, hiding bodies to avoid detection. Another tactic is to throw in à gas grenade and use the confusion to your advantage. Your approach depends upon the situation you find yourself in, the weapon skill you've decided to specialise in, or your own particular whim at the time.

In addition to Denton's skills come augmentations — permanent special abilities that can be added and upgraded with canisters scattered sparsely around the Deus Ex world. Each offers a choice: speed or stealth, better energy conservation or improved performance. Once these are installed, they cannot be removed or changed, leaving you to regret, tor example, not choosing toxic protection when you can see an easy route through a waste pipe. Weapon upgrades, too, are available, enabling you to personalise parts of your armoury with increased range, accuracy or laser sights. Ultimately, you build Denton up, and you're responsible for his strengths and weaknesses, which is hugely satisfying,

Above all, Deus Ex never tells you wnat to do. Goals are set, but alter according to your decisions. In tum, how you handle the stark moral wildcards thrown up by the conflict affects people's reactions to you, as well as the future missions you receive. Denton's body has been engineered and enhanced with nanotechnology in order to serve UNATCO; Denton's mind = your mind =

is having doubts about whether he ought to be doing so. The choice, and the associated pressure, is all yours.

The only discernible weaknesses in Deus Ex concerns the gradual degeneration of the plot into third-rate sci-fi nonsense and some appalling voice acting, which detract from the immersive experience, as do the increasingly large saving and loading times between areas. These are imitations a game this well designed deserves to be without, but they aren't enough to spoil the enjoyment. Behind the plot lies a game structure and depth that stands out from everything that has gone before. Put simply, it's the anti-Daikatana — a game that not only lives up to its hype, but often exceeds it.

Edge rating: Nine out of ten

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Shortly after arriving in Hong Kong, Denton encounters two gangs of warring triads. Here, they settle their differences in a disused subway station

Moral dilemmas

Not long into Deus Ex, an attack on your brother s with a choice: fiee through the

, as directed, or stay and fi

apart by morality versus cowardice, Edge took the Blair-asqua third way and hid in a cupboard. Lowering, listening to the sounds of the conflict in а dark space until it's ripped apart by stray gunfire is terrifying, slightly embarrassing. and a perfect

illustration of the freedom within the game

Explosions and smoke effects are dramatic, if not especially realistic. Structures are varied within the same geographical area, taking Denton from engineering plants to trying his luck in a local nightspot

Legend of Dragoon

Format: PlayStation Publishes SCE Developer: In-house — Price: $40 (£27) Aelease: Out now (US) December (UK)

m hree years in the making, with a

| develooment team of 100-plus staff, Sony's foray into Japan's favourite genre was always going to be big news. The final result spans four CDs, contains more than half an hour of CG movies, but makes so many mistakes that only a hefty marketing campaign will protect its sales from the critical backlash.

It takes just seconds to realise that Fria

Fantasy's PlayStation episodes were the primary sources of inspiration. Legend of

Designing for a massmarket demands accessibility, but Sony's attempt to play

safe has resulted in a predictable, linear plot

In winged form, your character can [with little choice) perform a Dragoon attack. Yet more button-pressing is required to make it succeed

098

Dragoon retains the prerendered backorops and 3D battlefields, steals some dragon transformations from Capcom's Breath of Fire series, and bases the combat system around Gunbilade-style timed key presses to extend attacks into combos.

Designing for a massmarket demands accessibility, but Sony's attempt to play safe has been translated into a predictable, linear plot unitroubted Оу puzzies or side-quests. Gather your Water Marain band of Dragoons - human warnors with elemental dragon powers — and then take on an evil empire with your transforming ‘semnal task force. The characters are the blandest stereotypes imaginable, from the spiky-haired Dart to the accident-prone love interest of Shana, a brazen Rinoa-cione, and it's giving little away to reveal that you can spot a potential recruit in advance when the colour of their outfit matches the elemental force you're missing. The storyline isn't aided by its poor and often boggling localisation of dialogue. It beagars Delief that more effort wasn't invested here, when global release was a definite.

Fans are notoriously resilient to these shortcomings; of course, but an RPG still needs a nalf-decent combat system to maintain interest for more than 40 hours of play. Ultimately, this is where LoD falls down Again, you can see that the developer has focused on simplicity: there are no skills or classes, magic is limited to spacial attacks and the role of equipment has been marginalised. But paring down the usual tactical options has merely created a shallow battle engine that plays more like a turn- based beat 'em up in which the players options are pretty much limited to attacking

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Monster encounters aren't so much random as perfectly regular in their occurence, with an indicator arrow warming from blue to red as the time for combat approaches, taking the sting out of things somewhat

or defending with a weapon In every round. This is where Sony's Addition system comes in, of course, and no doubt it was hoping that its button-tapping gameplay would hold wider appeal than the usual wargame- derived skirmishes. But the Additions soon become repetitive, lacking the sophistication of Vagrant Story, so the initial thrill palls after a few hours. The timings are so demanding that some players may even feel left behind.

Oddly, defending is your primary means of healing, and recovers just ten per cent of max health per round while effectively doubling the length of most battles. Couple this with some inescapable enemy animations that rely on heavy disc access and you have a grindingly tedious combat system at the core of the game.

The list of desian issues is far tao

extensive to more than touch on here: but take, for example, an inventory that allaws just 32 items. Whatever the reasoning behind such an obviously deliberate restriction, the reality is that you spend most of the game managing or discarding your treasures as soon as you acquire them. With item use being your only means of curing status ailments and recovering magic for some party line-ups, this seems a ludicrous way to increase the difficulty level.

Graphical excellence will be a selling point and LoD indulges the player in running water and drifting smoke effects. Nevertheless, either Sony knows less about its own console than Square, or the lengthy development has taken Its toll, There's little nere that hasn't already appeared In other games over the past three years, and the

Linear pathways on the world map carry the player from one event to another, limiting any adventure

оца CG sequences can be jarring in their heavy-handed application

This soulless and cyrical attempt to

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under the dictates of marketing and product

planning. Almost every element has been borrowed from other titles, and then

assembled so thoughtlessly that the whole

project falls to gel. іп striving so hard for massmarket accessibility, the developer often neglects to instil any depth. Theres little doubt that Sony's promotional power will secure the game's chart success in all mayor territories, Out ts not hard to picture

egions of bored and disappointed

Есае rating: Five out of ten

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A balancing error has left Legend of Dragoon's basses with more experience points than hundreds of enemies, completely taking the reward out of other encounters as you move through the game

Unless you use Additions in every attack, the damage inflicted is negligible. It isn't possible to ignore them, and they soon become tiresome

Rhythmic RPGs

Button-tapping seems to be the vogue in current APGs, as witnessed in Vagrant Story and Valkyrie Profile, but Legand of Dragoon's Addition system is simpler that its rivals. муе the combat is strictly turni- based, every attack animation has to be extended into a multi-hit combo with perfectly timed presses of the X button. Successful execution will start to fill a Special Power bar, eventually enabling the character to transform into a winged Dragoon and perform either an elemental magical blast or а tying attack.

The timing is actually quite demanding at first, and you must also watch out for counter-attack warnings that require you to hit a reversal button instead, Much simpler to use are the attack items - collectable one-shot missiles whose damage can be raised by 100-300 per cent simply by mashing the X-button as quickly as possible. Prepare to dust off your old ‘sleeve-over-the-finger’ rubbing technique.

089

From top: the multiplayer option, though technically limited, is welcome; serious damage can be taken care of in the pits; some of the bonus cars can be a handful; the usual settings options are included

Format: PlayStation Publisher

n the savagely competitive world of

{ console racing, two developers regularly lap the rest of the field: Asia s Polyphony Digital Inc may have have the edge at the mornent, but in Europe, hoping to Torce an uncharacteristic driving error from its sole Jodemasters keeps pushing One ather Tarmac ог dirt, if you're looking for playability, technical ability, and an

consistent understanding

astoundinaly of gameplay, nothing this side of Russia comes close to the Warwickshire codeshop And when it comes to harder at e eis on Lu ast efforts. 10907 ТОСУ

о sequels, few Wo: From Touring Car Championship a straight = hous ipii playable - representation of that year's season, to TOCA 2 a year and a bit later, which unprecedented step of including the support races from the To: implementing an unrivalled cable link-up

took the uring Car series as well as

mode, Codemasters lett little doubt as to how serious it was about its TOCA licence Which leads to TOCA Word Tounng Cars. As the name suggests, the action this time extends beyond ( roads to include Touring Car series from

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five continents (namely Europe, North and South . A Srnec 3.

on 23 licensed tracks.

Australia and Asia), raced Assuming мойе videogame racing fan with reasonable ехрепепсе, you t recogn iie some of these from F1, NASCAR and previous TOCA games, but others such as Australia's Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Prenois venue, will be refreshingly new to most. Ultimately, the tracks are as vaned as the car collection which, while not massive at some 40-odd models, nas been carefully

and wisely selected to provide the player

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with some excitingly different models

some of which present challenging handing characteristics. True, most of the standard Touring Car models offer a fairly forgiving approach, no doubt disagree, GT2's dynamics still feel as though they are better implemented — though it's a very close run thing. Nevertheless, moving from the predictable Audi A4 О which can be thrown into

and though Codemasters wil

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At times a little slowdown creeps in when things get busy, though it’s not around long enough to spoll the action. The heavy demands on the CPU have resulted in the need for very slight letterboxing

able abandon, to

the tail-happy Lotus R340 or the frenzied power delivery of TVR's Speed 12 can реа disconcerting experience.

Before that's likely to happen, however, plenty of rubber will have been left on the track. The main game — the oneplaye Championship Career mode = eschews the креп common linear structure

Xt the majority of racing titles in favour of a intelhgentiy thought-out model. Before you get to the racing part, driving offers from various International teams are made available. Pick one and complete a simple test drive (which is sufficient to qualify you to race for other teams, unless your performance deteriorates) and enter one of seven national championships, each of which is composed of six race events. During the season you'll obviously want to amass the maximum number of points (which unlock cars in other modes), but you also have to

comers with reaso

keep in mind the team objective set out at the time of the offer, which can consist of anything from a points target to finishing ahead of a particular rival. Your pertormance throughout the championship determines the type of offers vou find when returning to your career screen. Eventually, it's on to the international and finally the WTC series. Graphically, it's difficult to think of the PlayStation managing more than what Codemasters is asking of it here. GT2's cars and tracks may look prettier, but then it doesn't have to worry about anywhere near the same number of competitors on track 12 to 16, depending on the championship level). More importantly, whereas GT2 focuses on the car, TOCA WTC very much emphasises the driver and the whole aspect of belonging to a team, and it does so with more conviction than anything else to date. Another thing it does better than most is create the illusion of racing against other

00:09.20

REPLAY

While the sound is superb, few things are as much fun as night races without the use of your headlights

drivers, rather than the usual drone-Iike entities. Stay close to someone's tail applying pressure, and they're likely to out-brake themselves into the nearest gravel trap, for instance. Or you could find yourself racing ahead of the pack in fear of being pushed off the si stuff by Schumacher types (TOCA VV aggressive field of ш racers Edge has had the pleasure to do battle with). With the exception of some infrequent instances that leave you feeling unfairly beaten, the result is both intensely enjoyable and strikingly engrossing — at times it even manages to be more exciting than its closest competito While the TOCA licence may restrict the overall diversity of the title — ный it of some potential = quality-wise, it is on par with premiLim racing titles GT2 and Coln MoRae Балу 2.0.

GC offers the most

Edge rating Eight cut of ten

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mu Expect WTC's opposition to give you one of Hi ШШ the hardest times you'll have ever encountered О ina racing game. It's wonderfully immersive

Applying damage

One feature that has undoubtedly helped elevate the TOCA games above the competition has been the implementation of damage. The gameplay implications

of this seemingly obvious addition can not be underestimated - WTC would lose tremendous appeal without it. By far the most advanced of the series so far, this real physics-based model offers some superbly realistic and comprehensive damage effects. This contributes massively to the game's atmosphere, conveying the Touring Car series’ sense of close-contact racing effortlessly, substantially ennching the gaming experience. Other than PC sims, there currently isn't a more convincing example around.

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The way you can customise your own championships for yourself and any friends that may be playing alongside you is a fine touch. Whether they'll prove as aggressive as the CPU drivers is debatable

101

From top: A complete crew awaits you in the pits (one even wipes your visor]; Marshals clear away retirements;

and one of many post-race screens

Grand Prix 3

Format: PG — Publisher; Microprose Developer Geoff Crammond and co. Price £30 — Helease: Qut now

rand Prix 3 is опе of those rare games

that manages the magical feat of making Formula One more exciting than it appears on television. The continuing drive from goveming body FOA to reduce speeds and improve safety has aradually turned motorsport's premier activity into one of the dullest spectator sports around. Nowadays F1 races have an annoying and disappointing tendency to turn into a monotonous procession of cigarette and telecommunications adverts whizzing around circuits across intercontinental locations, occasionally interrupted by the odd retirement or, if you're really lucky, an overtaking manoeuvre. ‘Yet, by accurately capturing the intricacies of the

sport, this simulation finally proves to

armchair enthusiasts that participating is far more exciting than spectating.

That Grand Prix 3 is excellent won't come as shock to those familiar with Geoff Crammond's previous work. Based on the 1998 season, the game does have an undeniably dated feel to it — but what Crammond's effort may lack in actuality il more than makes up for in attention to detail. With the exception of Jacques Villeneuve (who at the time had a penchant for licensing himself independently from the FIA), all 22 drivers and 11 teams feature alongside 15 circuits. Needless to say, every livery appears correctly placed on the fibreglass and advertising banners, and grandstands

What this simulation finally proves to armchair enthusiasts is that participating is far more exciting than spectating

102

and gravel traps line either side of the painstakingly recreated tracks.

The usual race options are offered (Quick, Practice, Multiplayer, Single and Championship), along with varying degrees of difficulty. The latter affect the number of driving aids available to the you, so that while the rookie option gives the player access to indestructibility, racing line display and thrattle/brake/gear support, the ace setting offers only automatic gears and rear wheelspin control. One interesting and well- implemented addition is steering е which compensates for control deficiencies when using keys or a switched joystick, as opposed to а force-feedback wheel.

Regardless of the difficulty setting, the

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As you'd expect, detail level is first rate. Failures include suspension, engine, transmission, throttle/brake and electrical problems, as well as punctures, loose wheels, oil/water leaks, tyre and undertray wear

player gets to adjust all of the car settings. This isn't a compulsory procedure, but toying with the damper rebound values, or checking out the weather forecast and carefully planning your pit stop strategy can be hugely satisfying.

Despite being given access to just about every fathomable option and more telemetry than the average bram can handle, the game's ability to immerse you within its virtual world only really hits home once you re sat on the grid, with 21 drivers around — or if you re unusually talented, behind – you, growing ever more tense as another red light switches on. Once they go off, surviving past the first corner with all wheels and bodywork intact (presuming you have all the failures

enabled) is a genuine challenge, though navigating your way to the end of the race, having successfully avoided being run off the track by a competitors overambitious overtaking and managing to move up a few places yourself is no picnic, either.

The cars handle beautifully (unless you've really tinkered with the set up), offering levels af grip and the sort of speed through corners that normal cars come nowhere near. With all of the driving aids off, keeping it on the limit requires utter dedication. However, Grand Prix 3 is perhaps less hardcore an experience than Grand Prix Legends, which despite the absence of downforce and its slower cornering speeds, can occasionally offer marginally superior gaming moments.

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Naturally, marshals and their flags come out as soon as an incident occurs. Although not shown here, GP3's software version is excellent

The addition of arms for the drivers may well have encouraged still more identification by the player

Al a tme when every developer seems

more concemed with bringing Grand Prix Weather: changeable Over the years, one of the most consistently criticised omissions from Grand Prix 2 i$ a changeable weather system. Although thought to have been

planned for inclusion at the tire,

racing to the masses by trivialisinc Most

aspects of the sport, it's encouraging to

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you would expect such an approach to allaniate a portion of the more general gaming audience, the title's quick race options

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simulations get. But in addition to this, in terms of authenticity, content, and overall execution, Grand Prix 3 excels, and

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Few things in the videogaming world rank as demanding as controlling 700-odd bhp on а wet surface while avoiding 21 determined competitors. The weather is a particularly well-implemented feature

Crammond must have felt uncomfortable about its implementation and the feature was removed near the end of the development cycle. Third time around,

no such problems have occured. The weather in Grand Prix 3 is entirely dynamic; in addition to getting rain in the middie of a race, occasionally it's possible for one area of the track to be wet, while others dry out Furthermore, after a shower, wet and dry patches develop as cars pass over certain areas, adding to the game's authenticity.

103 3

Shutokou Battle 2

Format. Dreamcast Publisher Genki Developer In-house Frica: Y5,800 (E35) Peliease- Out now (Japan) ТВС (UK)

ith its interesting If somewhat REPLAY W limited premise, the shamefully

(SP L underdeveloped original Shutokou Balle

= z Fj , A m ہے غ‎ б "Ar RE лы» emm VUA à ime E a ICI iN EM — alled to set the racing word alight. While М ' not twearang the core concept too Гизамйү, the seque sets out 10 Improve on Its predecessor's shortcomings in the hope

of an enhanced performance second time

ана

around the track.

The ‘battleground’ remains lokyo's

urban highway system, but this time length is massively improved — overall, some 150krr

"=. Р Fia a P ii ml am [T of Tarmac are now available which, as in the

previous game, can be driven in either

direction. As with the original, the immediate 1

criticism — that the very nature of tne highway structure can make it a very dull road to trave

m ee р Hee ome Hee Hra f Exe "кз yl — Sill stands. Mougn mius tme The occasional

forks in the freeway tend to be more dramatic

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the handling has improved substantially, meaning vehicles can manage curves without having to resort to bouncing around

the Armco. However, Shutokou Battle 2 by

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i ww maka fr rc fir ores Гл ore onang make тта га кие OF yoyar.

The aim of the main Quest mode remains

сиг! 3 АД игы и К a i LN ШСМ У Ф

traffic їп search of a rival to challenge. When you do, and should you fancy your chances,

ick your main beam and the race is on. As

n the first game, staying ahead of your

А 1 . "ud ит ae ek FETU vos opponent by weaving crafty through

The visuals have been massively improved and, as in the original, everything moves mostly at 60fps. The PAL version may include some additional elements, such as a twoplayer option

the civilian traffic depletes your persuet 5 energy. Maintain first place long enough

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existing model with ether mechanica

or New paintwork/DOCOywork

uparades

schemes and decals. The enhancements

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Get yourself upgraded

feedback via nigh-instantaneous visual Cues

; D ате мсп can prove saüstying. па ште апа As with seemingly every other racing game z

nowadays, Shutokou Battie 2 taps into An overall improvement resulting in ап

enjoyable tite, then, but the repetitiveniess

Ine Japanese obsession with car tuning by offering а reasonably comprehensive oi the proceedings combined with me

selechon of upgrades, though mast focus

limitations of the concept proves undeniably on the aesthetic rather than the

emasculatory You could argue that winin its performance side. As ever, the ability to aa ч : E Ces La 0 UEM E lin FR personalise your car with a stormisect sub-genre ShAufokou Bane г does averythine PEN SLM ee الا‎ Lu MIU db GUSTON Tee = F mal dil E E re * ымы" he duo + D TEE ла Ита аа == we paint job and sticker set – as well as t needs to with reasonable competence

some taste jy Selected apcoders, sig

DUT in today's hercety competitive racing

skirt, light fixings and alloys - and witness videogame market, it's still trailinc a

the alteration in realtime is satistying, while eiqaniicant distance behind the

tweaking with the control sensitivity costs : ' trontrunners in the genre,

nothing and can radically improve handling Naturally, mast of the vehicles are of Japanese

origin. Beat a particular model and it becomes —————————— —

available to buy. Race replays prove compelling сосе rama гле о [e

AÀ [14

Street Fighter Ill 3rd Strike

| he Street Fighter is unlikely to ever again enjoy the adulation that met its 1990 SNES debut. While the contemporary gamer may well cite the likes of Tekken or Soul Calibur as the epitome of the genre, those longer in the tooth will relish the idea of yet another version of the indefatigable brawler, Staying true to the traction of fresh protagonists for each new title, 19 characters are selectable from the off, the most farniliar of which are Ryu, Ken and Chun Li. Much ol the remaining cast returns from Street Fighter Ill: W impact, with a handful of newcomers adding minimal spice to the gameplay. Equally welcome is the quality of animation, bearing all the hallmarks of its older cousin. That said, Street Fighter IIl 3rd Strike suffers from a lack of inspiration in its backdrop design. Harbours and building sites simply don't match the visual flair of previous game Stages, such as VV Impacts clichéd London setting or Zero 3's stormy wooded clearing. Partial respite from this letdown is the inclusion of all the de ngeur game modes: Arcade, Versus and Training. Arcade now offers the player the opportunity to set the order in which opponents are tackled. This ensures no two journeys through a oneplayer game will present quite the same challenge. Despite these additions, the only really new ingredient is a refined blocking arrangement, referred to as System Direction Vanous forms of block and guard block can be switched on or off, and timings altered to suit fighting styles. However, putting these selechons into practice delivers subtleties too sight for all but the most seasoned of players to distinguish, giving rise to fears of technical minutiae taking precedence over sheer thrills. Larnentably, even the most devout aficionado would agree that little has changed between chapters, save minor tweaks to the fighting system, While there are new characters to give the illusion of progress, many will find themselves returning

to the undeniable balance of Ryu, Ken or able balance of Ryu, Ken In order to warrant their use, new characters must

Gouki when engaging in multiplayer bouts. come with something extra. the unlikely inclusion in light of such token modifications, it will be of Twelve (above) seems to be down to an overspill down to the series' familiar formula to secure n mper ыра Marvel уп Capcom 4

its success, all other elements ultimately rendered cosmetic distraction, At heart, Street Fighter ill 3rd Strike is Street Fighter by any other name, and despite its seff- defined constraints, this alone will be

the measure of its worth.

Edge rating: Six-out of ten

mme: Эд

Protagonists such as the hulking, sloth- like Hugo (left) are of questionable worth. Good for а few bouts only, you have to wonder where Edmond Honda went

Get yourself upgraded

Billed as System Direction, Capcom has bolstered Street Fighter II! Sra Strike s gameplay by allowing the manipulation

of nearly every aspect of the fighting mechanics. Essentially a series of on/off selections, this feature sees such facets as blocking distance, quard damage, throws and dashes rendered active or passive, dependent an their status. Ten pages of options are present, although the final eight are unlocked by completing the game.

Diablo |!

Format: PC (reviewed), Mac Publisher: Havas — Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Price: £30 — Relsase; Out now

The majority o! NPC interaction and storyline progress takes place in your base camp. Here, Paladin Edge is thanked for a job well done

The FMV sequences introducing and

linking the acts are strikingly realistic and rendered in an impressive cinematic style

Taking a gamble As well as magic, weapons and armour, sets of equipment are hidden around Diablo is expansive realm. Though each part of the set is individually strong, when all of a set ів used at once it takes on an even greater power. They're well hidden, though, so most will only be found by diligent exploring or ‘gambling’ = buying random, unidentified pieces of equipment from NPC street traders

106

HuUNGEY DEAD

Killing enemies which have the power to resurrect fallen comrades is crucial. The transparent automap (white lines that overlay the action) is crucial when exploring Diablo Is randomly generated territories

B icking up where Diablo left off, Diablo |

requires you to cast a new heroin your

image. onoose from amazon, warrior,

or سی س سم س‎ ay la i zx „ы аы ал ө ime ч 7 7 Пета аг, Desert, OF SOICETESS, dali

allocate skills, weaponry and armour. When

you've finished sculpting your champion,

t5

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time to place them into an isometnc world of endiess flat landscapes, randomly generated dungeons, and much evil ready to be purged.

Even discounting the replay value (as

well as the random generation and different

classes of hero, there are two more difficulty

levels which become available on completion),

L ` س‎ m i Ра Р ыыт. күлүү acts’ see you journeying east in search of

The Wan Pe curve و‎ Ihe Wanderer. Each act 5 composed

Diablo II is huge. Four graphically distinct

a senes of simple quests. Untortunately, the

ia E na diesem Pie‏ — و Key word there is series: playing ano‏

an utterly linear experience, with the end of

one quest directing you to your base camp,

and leading rapidly to the start of another. This would be more palatable if the

quests. which are worked into Tour

overarching ‘acts’, weren't so similar. Almost

all culminate in your slaying of a monster

югу bigger and tnickier than the previous

one, either for the sake of various items or just

$

for the pantiess rignteousness of п all. heres

no [але sorma at all, not even or the most

Im mena - T rx i Р ТР н чы” а! -d — = basic key-and-locked-door type. All character

interaction and storyline advancement takes

place with the half-dozen characters inside

your current act's main location, Outside of

this, it's а case of kill everything that moves.

C As for combat, your one-man (or several,

if you want to play multiplayer through

battie.net) army will be attacked by

fantastic numbers of monsters, and it's all

quite frantically enjoyable, II more reminiscent

is

of Gauntiet than an APG. Click and you'll swine, stab, or shoot at one of them, a

they'll either die or you'll have to repeat.

Bigger monsters require more clicking. Really big ones require the sort of constant hacking

dedication worthy of a lumbenack. Victory

doesn't so much require skill as persistence.

Roleplayers whose primary concern in an

RPG is raising their character's level will find

enjoyment here; in particular, the range of

armour and weaponry is impressively varied.

However, if you yearn for NPC interaction

e

cumul mum тыз chen тї wu = and a vaned game structure, you i D

disappointed. Debio i 5 simplistic

occasionally absorbing, and desperately

shallow: fun in parts, but with far more

promise than achievement

асе rating: Six out i

Infestation

D avid Braben's worids are always different — harsh, unnatural colours

daubed on rolling landscapes mix with future Earth technology and unsettling alen shrieking, all glazed with a light cartoon touch. infestation fits the pattern, and like

"2000 and Zarch before it, it's typically arcade-iight on plot: all that really matters 5 the presence of the aliens, and the existence of a vehicle capable of destroying them. Known as an ACAM, this can be upgraded and fitted with improved weaponry as the game progresses

initially, though, the АСАМ в a basic

buggy, through which you are introducer

to the game landscape and inertial feel in the

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Some vehicles have telescopic sights enabling you to zoom in and identify prospective targets. The on-screen radar also locates opponents, and will be familiar to players of Zarch/Virus

ontext of a mode of transport whose control is instinctive. This is an astute move by

Oper Frontier, because the prayer nas

Resource management

Infestation exhibits elements of: simple resource management. By picking up scientists from your base and dropping them off to examine alien technology, you can develop the knowledge critical for new upgrades to your craft. Once they've found something. a lightbulb will appear over ther heads - but getting the improvements fitted to your ship involves more than just picking them up again. Each upgrade requires different amounts of the red, blue, and green crystals scattered through the game. Some crystals are only present in some systems, but upgrading your scanner will enable it to exhibit resource-rich areas.

time to become comfortable with the other

Keys inal control the firing, speed Musis

and the selection of primary and secondary Progress through the worlds

means the introduction of more modes of movement for YoU ACAM, and with each comes a new period of control adjustmen Although lives will still be lost as the disonented player desperately hits keys – indiscriminate use of thrust will almost certainly lead to death at the hands of either alien fighters or immersion in pools of water – this well-balanced learning curve means the process never gets frustrating

Missions across the 22 worlds range from hostage rescues to the destabilisation of entire planets. Speed is important, strategy more so; it's wise to spend a minute or two paying attention to the detailed mission objectives screen and forming a plan. But its the multiplayer modes, including football, racing, and capture the flag, that driva home the point that the stress of Infestation is firmh on enjoyment rather than realism

їп an era when so many games place

ther emphasis on Slow progress across

[t

acres Of nat landscapes, throwing venicies across the acutely curved hills and valleys

of infestation is a joy. The only question-mark

hanging over ine Ше is The depth of its Combat comes sporadically, and often design. While it often represents old-skool unexpectedly, but planning attacks from

a distance will improve your chances. The targeting system - a tunnel of three triangles and fun — placed within the wider context of - js competent enough to avoid irritation expenences of the complexity and conceptual

videogaming at its best = dynamic, original,

sophistication of Deus Ex, infestation

can look a е lightweight

Edge rating: Seven out of ten

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Fornat PlayStation Publisher: Activision Devoloper: Neversoft Prce: ЕЗ5 Halease: September

The boss levels follow the lead of the Zelda series. There's one particular technique you can use to emerge victorious — work it out and you'll virtually walk through the game

Collecting comics

Key to Neversoft game design is the replayability factor, vital in this case considering Spider-Man's limited length. Scattered throughout the levels are 32 comicbook covers from classic past issues of 'Spider-Man'. Finish the game once and you're granted a change of costume, offering unlimited webbing, using which you can swing through the streets of New York tracking down the elusive covers. Cleverly, this device serves two functions: on the one hand it extends the game beyond the scope of the original adventure, on the other it rewards ardent Marvel fans with a little self-congratulatory referencing.

108

DESTROY THE GENERATORS

The adventure follows classic ‘Spider-Man’ conventions. Spidey's framed for a crime, and, through a series of false leads and plot twists, gradually unmasks the mastermind behind the scheme

eversoft has taken the engine from Tony Hawk's Skateboarding and has, somehow delivered an accomplished 3D action adventure game in SpiderMan

The adventure sees the arachnoid hero swinging through New ‘York tracking down Doc Oc, who has framed him for a crime he didn't commit. Thanks to the Marvel comic licence a roster of heroes crop up = including Black Cat, Daredevil and Human Torch – as Spidey tussies with troublemakers like vicious symbiote Venom and master illusionist Mysterio. The licence also means Neversoft has been able to ramp up the level of detail.

Voiceovers are provided by the cast of the 'Spider-Man' animated senes (as well as legendary co-creator Stan Lee) and rewards on completing the game include alternative costumes and special abilities which appeared in classic issues of the comic.

Initially, the game appears to fall firmly into the stealth category, with distinct overtones of Metal Gear Solid, surprising guards with Spidey string; sneaking up and grappling villains from behind. Given the responsive control system, this is spot-on — so it comes as something of a surprise that the sneaking is limited to the opening level. The rest of the game follows a coin-op formula: linear, with an emphasis on action chases through skyscrapers and web-based battling.

One of the characteristics of coin-ops is that you're more tightly focused on the precision of the character's movements, which is great in this case because Spidey is crisply animated, and the player pays little attention to the fogging issue so evident in Tony Hawk's – Spidey's New York looks like it's shrouded in a fug of smog. A smart move, but the upshot of this decision Is that each section of the game delivers a short, sharp burst of action and consequently, as a whole adventure, Spider-Man comes in remarkably short, taking about six hours to complete.

Interestingly, this is the first time Spidey has appeared in full 3D, and you'd imagine the developer was waiting with bated breath for Marvel's verdict. Apparently, the comics giant was impressed with the results, which is high praise indeed — and some considerable comfort to hardcore Marvel fans concemed that Spider-Man would be another waste of a decent superhero licence.

Neversoft has already hinted that another Marvel superhero game is on its way — maybe it'll be even more accomplished

Kiss Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child

Format: РС Publisher Take 2 Developer: Gathering of Developers — Price: £30 Helsase: Out now

А — & Me Las айыз FS nat Жы = Wing п th (he Fuse Ресто Circus tour and | = T Р mm dis = bd РЕ үр album, and based upon the Todd McFarlane lha А туурь dü4 Chim an FPE LT ER LAT d] t Li ЕУ сй Гау GAS Ee Lad -rr mu kr | = T a Fur der ke) Hn r m: Чч س س س س‎ nus SOUS ie UNION КГ. mg EVES DUST aoecornmm] he, 8 i Р k w^ moa ы МЫ =, — م چ‎ р he comics goth horror mythology, are etherealy re utm ma "mj p "ГЫГА mmn ennt jal FF EEE A] ААЛИ k n] сі CLASS аги SL edt LTE cs

and simpte textures paper the level design IK e a

crayon recreation of Quake. Weapons, too, are

Cuake-like in appearance, bul The Nightmare

Child's primary influence goes back further than that. The game sports the same shock and schlock

value that Doom kick-started the genre with, throwing

minte amounts of Spawning enemies at

your character

with А) seerrngly їй to a relentless search-and destroy pattern. The gameplay is devoid of anything Dut thx it strategy of firing and running av the level design plain and without any real sense depth. The icon bar interface and the lack of interactior

with: anything but barrels and ievers are pure Doom

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Cut-scenes inject the monotonous gameplay with a rare cinematic feel. Above, one of the characters receives his first piece of magical armour

comically Tightening and utterly over ihe top. Just as

aptly, underneath all the irony, make-up and

gothic ramblings, it isn't really worth the effort

- When fired upon, these enemies can lose their limbs, and still keep going. А neat touch, but despite саде rund: Three out ot ten their lethal and numerous nature, cleaving them in two with a magical sword doesn't have any impact

Carmageddon TDR 2000

Format: PC Publisher: SC) Developer: Torus Games Price £30 Feasa: September 1

nmm c — itt - ushindg its unmistakable brand of apocalyptic ТП КЕТП ШТА racing mayhem, the third instalment in the ИАА КЕН 014. = LITE а ere natans а Mission-based structure spread over nine landscapes, fron (пе пша Hollywood-themed area to smog-filled cmes. The missions altemate with circut-based races canet the ck. Checkpoints bring time bonuses as do destroying an opponents са inning dowr c "s aen 398 11 TR: i thua fir ippearance of the franchise cunously underplayed ere, and the Game Denents trom m. Levels can still De

completed by annihitating the population, but theres more enjoyment to be had in casual zombie destrucbon while racing and shunting your competitors.

The repetitive nature of TOA 2000 means its

мадем m gquesbanabie, аа enhanced by the

кипе. MJneucs але permectry Deaf ] nie H У t di is Le A3 Д ПЕЕ i] ale

Driving opponents to destruction or going be in'icted, and offen avoided, Sraxing is acmingly

| oq Н. flat out for zombie kills are both viable unresponsive, particularly on the delault car. Indicat ч 13 options in completing the racing levels 2) — affa bird : | he whole game, the high speeds force

' >» 4 you are fun, but ultimately frustrating

zm

TDA 2000's sharp turns and blind corners produce thair fair share of zombie casualties. Power-ups, such | = as the turbo just collected above, only increase the chance of damage to both your car and the undead сосе rang Five out of ten

Vib Hibbon

Fornat: PlayStation Publisher: SCEE Developer SCE) Pree: £15 Altman Out now

he third game from Masaya Matsuura, the creato галла De i | Binhan tahe the Of "aHappa the Happer, Vib Hinbon takes the

BeMani concept into minimalan. Vibri, a wirefrarne

musically created wavetorms that are cleared by pm oF P EUR. F Е F Tih L^ sind an appropriate button. That's il jamepiay follows the rhythmic reward mode! Карра. Falun clear obstructions causes the

vectors to shake and break down, and your rabbit

devolving Into а frog, then a tadpole Conversely

into à superbunny figura. Neootating mma distorted Sanno-esaue pop that

mes as the game's major selling point

insert your own CDs and try to traverse the unique

| c | KS and ic paid Dy eacn Track T РЕ b = =. - = е с | T TTRCH ian an 1 lel

A rolling tutorial teaches you the Vib Ribbon basics. Above, Vibri is caught unawares by an approaching block. Master the moves and evolve (top)

iactor-chic remains to be seen. Bil its innovation

The most difficult tunes feature combinations of shapes. Above, Vibri comes across some spikes, a PX аш >= +— loop, and, yes, a spiked loop, which requires the simultaneous pressing of two keys to pass successfully toge айпа X t of ten

Hay Crisis

Format: PlayStation Publisher JVC — Developer Taito Price £35 Heiease. Out now

R зу Crisis is a no-nonsense vertically scrolling shoot 'em up: waves of angular metal ships

scream down the screen; you dari from &

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and dispose of attackers below before they can nse

and fight. Much of the scenery is satisfying

a Mm m - - уш. ui mmm шы} а - destructible: attack bridoaes and they'll fai away, their qun turrets with them. Sinple

=. m

While this game structure is potentially fun

each level is so short and your pain to the DOS

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hollow and pomntiess. The window of play swoons

beautifully around the landscape, but because your

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Or ireedom Tats O matenaise

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All tha graphical splendour in the world

wouldn't change the limitations of this рату

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16bit shooter in PlayStation polygons — a feeling

compounded by D-pad control, continuous fire, The end-of-level bosses are huge and hundreds of transparentik robotic enemies. If that's occasionally spectacular. Despite this, the prevailing primitive feel of a 16bit shooter dominates the gameplay

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But neither wil a secondhand Mega Drive.

-e Bigger fighters, especially those that travel along the scenery beneath you (above), are best disposed of cage rand: Four t Ot ten by using your secondary weapons. Enemies advancing at your altitude must be gunned down mercilessly

€

Codeshop

Tracking developments in development

Facing the future

Digimask СЕО Gary Bracey f

The next generation of games will be up close and personal, according to 3D facial modelling startup Digimask

Two photographs of а face front and in profile ага requested to make a Digimask. The finished 12,000-polygon Digimask also has an embedded skeletal animation framework

URL

www.digimask.com

fa picture is worth a thousand | words апа a tace can launch а thousand ships, what's the value of a 3D model of your Tace that can be plugged into a game? A numerically tncky equation, and one that Digimask CEO Gary Bracey has pondered during the 18 months following nis initial idea for the company.

"| had always thought it would be cool to actually be in a game yourself,” he says. It took just six weeks alter discussing the ideas viability with Keith Goss, now Digimask's technical director, for the first prototype to emerge.

The concept itself is simple. Take two photos, one tace-on and one іп profile, and email tham to Digimask, together with some data about your physical appearance. From these photos, a three-dimensionai, 12,000- polygon model of your head, including hair and a skeletal structure for animations such as laughing, crying and lip synching, Constructed. Also embedded are personal details such as name, nickname and physical size. All this information is stored on Dicimask's secure server. When a user wants that information to be downloaded nto a game or Web application that supports Digimask, they enter a PIN number.

The server scales the information

and exports it to the specific

platform required, be it anything

from PlayStation? to a mobile phone. in Keeping with the underkining Intermmet Dusiness mode, te Service Б completely free to consumers. All they have to do is email the pictures and sign а еда! disciamer that the photos are their property. For Digimask, the

Not shooting yourself in the head

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toe comes deathmatch tor fe а кт тке т нн for te

[жар | ш 1 #14 Сеге irn Tha US

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where you need to have two specifically posed photographs — neutral expression

mouth closed. and staring straight al the can

ym E

TEM ESTE, Riya

146

most important thing is to make sure there's a big demand so the technology will be supported in as many ways as possible. “We want Digimask to be

as ubiquitous as DualShock was — something developers include as standard," explains Bracey,

The number of applications is enormous, and not simply limited to games. One novel idea Nokia is considering is using Digimask with low-bandwidth, next-generation mobile phones. It would be possible, using Dcimask's skeletal animation system and lip synching, to view the moving face of the person you were speaking to, without the bandwidths associated with true videophones. Internet chat zones are another potential hit. But while the most obvious application of Digimask is on ecommerce sites, it's games that are driving the technology.

“We have some pretty senous games in the pipeline," Bracey says, refusing to name names. Careful scrutiny of Diaimask's Web site and promotional literature throws up a coupte of leads, however, witn Elixir Studio's Hepublic looking likely to be the launch title. Evolution Studio's PlayStation2 Evo Rally will follow close on its heels, with another PlayStation? game also signed up. Bracey s ultimate application would be a football game. “| would love to see an online soccer game where we're playing against Manchester United, and | can see you and | pass the ball to you and | know it's you," he enthuses

He even predicts that Digimask will Da used directly as a game development tool. "If you are a developer, populating your game with 100 different people and you want realism, just send us the photographs of your programmers and artists, say, and we can tum them around quickly," ne says, adding: "It saves on development time." The cost per head, for commercial use, will be a few hundred pounds,

“When we go live at the end of the year, there will be about 12 applications that will launch with Digimask," Bracey explains. The Web site has already clocked 2,500 pre-registrations and i5 prepanng 1o enter its Dêla testing

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phase, Bracey is confident that the final version of the Digimask code, complete with its SDK, will hit its October deadline. “We're trying to personalise the virtual environment and we're hoping for millions of users," Bracey concludes.

The vision is becoming reality

don't care if today's games | publishers don't take a second look at what we are doing,” says Ton Roosendaal, the outspoken creator of the 3D modelling and animation package Blender. "I get the feeling a lot is going to change in the next couple of years."

Change is something Roosendaal knows all about from personal expenence. Blender started life as a proprietary development tool created for NeoGeo, the Dutch design company he co-founded. It took the closure of the company two years ago to open his eyes to a different way to do business. The result was Blender's release onto the Internet as a 1.5Mb freeware program. Containing much of the functionality of packages such as 3D Studio Max and Maya, wrapped up in a neat, cross-platlorm package, take-up was swift. The registered user base is now more than 105,000, and, because of this open-source approach, a large community continues to support it. Roosendaal reckons any query posted on Senders news server will be answered within three hours. The Blender codebase is also updated on a bi-monthly basis. "Blender is not about technology, it's about people,” he emphasises.

The recent acceptance of the latest version of Blender, officially known as Blender 2.0 (gameBlender). on to PlayStation2's middleware programme has underlined the quality of the package. The PS2- specific code can only be supplied to developers who have signed up for Sony's official PlayStation? programme, though. Even so,

Whipping up a storm

Roosendaal seems to think it's unlikely that established teams will switch over to gameBilender. “Blender has a huge potential over the Internet. Sharing games and improving them together is, for me, an exciting perspective," he says. “It might be that publishers and professionals are reluctant to go this way, but what happened to the dinosaurs, eh?" instead, Not a Number, the company Roosendaal set up for Blender, is focusing on integrating gameBlender with its forthcoming webBlender. This will enable interactive content to be played in standard browser windows and encourage the distribution of game content online, NaN has commissioned single-level games to demonstrate the potential of the package. These can be downloaded from the Blender Web site, but, like all garneBlender games, they must be played through Blender. Always happy to help the evolutionary process along, NaN will also act as publisher for ary complete games it considers worthy of release via its Web site at www.blender.ni.

Behind the code

m

|

[ИШ |

EDGE (88 КЕД >

ountiess people have ideas

p about the online revolution and how the introduction of broadband will affect gaming, but small Scottish company Digital Bridges is building up its own wireless Internet games channel. and has already hosted more than 100,000 WAP games

“For us, WAP is just the first thing,” explains business development manager Chris Wright. “We're doing WAP because that's what the content is, but we are going to be delivering content to lots of different devices, They could be running browsers or Java or Symbian. The vision has always been the wireless Internet. not WAP"

The foundation for now and the future 15 Digital Bridges’ UNITY

platform, recently accepted onto

a

[d = EE

Spanning the games divide

Hewlett-Packard's Mobile E-services Bazaar. Designed as a fully scalable server, it's based on both Linux and HP-UX operating systems.

The platform has to work on a large range of handsets and over all networks. Key to this is its thin client technology, which ensures that multiplayer games can be supported. It also has multi-language support so gamers from different countnes can play together, with the server sending structions in the correct language.

UNITY's use of Enterprise JavaBeans also means developers within the UNITY programme can reuse and swap code. So far, four studios have signed up: Crawfish; Games Kitchen: German developer Handy Games; and Lionhead. "We're looking for ten developers, but they

all have to be hand-picked because they must be good at certain things. and so enrich each other,” says Kevin Bradshaw, Digital Bridges’ CEO “The UNITY platform will grow

taking in the components being built by developers, and they will be made available for the other partners.”

This is particularly crucial for Digital Bridges site www.wireless games.com, as all the content must be integrated into the server to facilitate logins and lobby services

As for the current backlash against WAP Bradshaw seems unconcerned: “The biggest game Web sites have four to five million We'll have at least that many WAP users by the end of the year — that’s why we spent a lot of time looking at server scalability.”

Tel: +44 (0)1952 208702 Fax: +44 (0)1952 208704

E-MAIL: enqguiries@cxtreme!«.co.uk WEB: www.extremefx.co.uk

Physics on the rebound

The latest release of MathEngine's physics code is finally enabling developers to break new ground

MathEngina's games marketing manager, Paul Topping

Atlus’ Primal Image was the first PS2 game to use MathEngine's middleware

URL

Actor demo: www.mathengine.corn/ files/ActorDemoV1.ese Vivid Image: www.Vvividimage.co.uk MathEngine: dev.mathengine.com

Piaying the part

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tor bath its gameplay

& nnd reactions ist wowdn two

W hile there are plenty of good reasons to have realistic ingame

physics, the process of implementing is a lot harder than it first appears

Mats the whole reasoning behind

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the easiest way for developers to get real physics into games. Unfortunately, developers, in tur, found the initial

build of the physics tool kits too

tricky and inflexible to implement

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duty mathematics underpinning tne

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detail issues in the physics, so we have to give away the source code," Topping explains. Another welcome change has been a more realistic

pricing structure. The options are

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The chanaes seem to be paying off. The first PlayStation2 game to ship using MathEngine's middleware was Altus unusual model-photography sim Primal image. Other developers who have signed up include Fergus

McCovern's HotGen Studios, and

Meviut Dinc's Vid Image. which has

The two components of MathEngine / are its collision and dynamics too! kits

already released a 10MDb demo for its groundbreaking new Actor

"People are trying to do some

really innovative things with MathEngine," says Topping. “A lot of these games wil come out with features you wouldn't have seen before, because it would have been too much of a pain in the neck to

deal with all the physics." For MathEngina, it seems that what

goes down, can also go up. And while that would have confused Newton

І сы" - Pa ET us T— ч = t should, at least, serve to make

pnysics clearer юг developers

The latest version of MathEngine is faster and more stable than its predecessor - which wasn't tremendously well received = and allows developers more flexibility to tweak the code

Dial-a-diversion

Mobile phone gaming has a big future, and Nokia is shaping up to be the market's Microsoft

W hen | started at Nokia 13 As an ambassador from the world's phones and the 'always-on' GPRS months адо, | was tallang biggest handset vendor, it's Stafford's network expected before the end of

into thin air." recalls Gratien Stafford job to encourage the development the year, the tau looks promising Ш

E uo ж S m Wu = $ erm " f = в a a rm mg - =r а m frr Many must have thouant the move Of тла! Quality across the ооаго and vaned тог developers Teu Окы umm Ps =m + at, rs m. = E mum ue A A PR " = = = -— rom Psygnosis development director One of the most important issues wanting to move into the sector PW) Fe j AAO + А ў p De ы Г ACD s т - to head of WAP applications for a tor a WAP game developer to consider

mabde phone company a strange 8: who shouid ther games De

опе. At the time developers didn't take targeting? Should it be hardcore early phones seriously as a gaming patrormm; adopters who are prepared to endure they were just dumb handsets with tiny bad и races, or the massmarket monochrome screens. Even now, the wno don t even understand tne

first tentative steps of WAP gaming Бая For Stafford, at laast, the

have met with some derision from issue is clear cut: "People ask, "When some Quarters of the industry do you think WAP games will be a Whai ts Decoming clear, however, (5 E- and | say "When my mother that mobile phones will be an importar plays them’. She wouldn't play console Finnish developer Wizzbang and potentially lucrative sector of the james. It's impc о appeal to the recently won a Nokia award ‚ . 1 4 rein games market. No less a figure than general public rat gamers for its SubHunter WAP game i : Konami co-founder Kagemasa Kozuk "We need an active development recently predicted the mobile phone community, and we need to support

business could account for up to that.” And with more than 10,000 50 per cent of the games market jubere of all shapes and sizes revenue in years to come signed up to Nokia s Mobile

‘It's not a case of if, but when," Entertainment programme, which Staford emphasises when asked includes its game construction too!

about the acceptance of WAP. But kit. the drive seems to

luc ъа пты Ы LES VIL. ref g

The next stage of the М : age of the URL the ‘when’ relies on the quality of the Entertainment programme will come

forum.nokia.com content available for people to access to тооп when Nokia releases its

platform to developers in two months One of Rage's three games for Orange, | Mm mns $ Airlock was developed using Nokia's time. Nokia will a yunch the server Р

The deal so far Шы: азо fau — game construction tool kit

and its content commercially tor mobile

phone networks. Stafford is swift to

point out that developers will still have

| Despite its гобсепсе to get involved in largescale game publishing, Nokia has signed à number of content deals with developers and publishers. Oxford Softworks

developed the first eight WAP games for Nokia, and is following these with another uil Lh ' i a find ғ olsher for their games ten board-based games. Activision has signed up to create 11 text achvertures. to find а publisher for thei games,

= ms i SA = be rm ELITS and haga is working an a game based on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy though: "Nokia is a communications

Nokia also possesses in-house development talent m Austria and Hungary company, not a games comp any

With second-generation V NAP

stresses, strains and stupid drinking at the most important event in videogames

focuses on two projects from two developers. Elixir's next instalment will appear in E90

3 is the most important date

= in the games industry calendar. Some 55,000 developers, publishers, retailers and journalists descend on LA to do the deals that will dictate the course of the year. For developers what happens here is the difference between success and failure. The buzz that surrounds your game is decisive in whether it will be a hit. To this end, Elixir spent March and April working flat out to be ready for the show. It was brutal, and reminded me of doing Finals: two years of your life rests on the fortunes of a single week.

Most of the team worked every weekend from the New Year and weekday evenings till the small hours. If the competition is working 15 hours a day, | want us to be working 16.

helped settle our now-jangling nerves as we stepped on to the sweat. Stress? It hadn't even begun. E3 is about the relentless business of selling your game. You're just one of thousands of developers screaming ‘Look at me!’ You can't avoid this = it's part of the business of making games. The games are mostly shown on the stands themselves, which creates an atmosphere akin to a Motórhead concert, but with only half the charm. It's an assault on the senses, and not to be faced when hungover. It's very hard to command your own attention, let alone anyone else's — unless you're one of the scantily clad and much-pawed models. To counteract

Elixir diary, part 22 | by desagner Joe MeDonaugh |

a chilling demonstration of Japanese power. Like everyone who saw it, І can't wait to get my hands on it. Commandos 2 also looked cracking. While in LA we stayed in a beautiful hotel in the Westwood area with a crowd from Eidos. Demis invariably spent his evenings with important people, such as other CEOs. Luckily, | had no such restrictions and ended up spending my time with a lot of different people, | was amused to notice that for all LA's many attractions, put Brits in an exotic city anywhere in the world and they'll make a pilgrimage to the local Brit-themed pub, which they duly did. We bumped into a lot of old faces while there. Some of the quys from Mucky Foot, for instance, were

‘For developers, what happens at ЕЗ is the difference between success and

failure. Ihe buzz that surrounds your game is decisive in whether it"ll be a hit

With more than 5,000 games at the show, there's no room for error or mediocrity. We had to have something that would establish Republic: The Revolution as one of the games of next year.

None of which could have been further from my mind as | found myself sprinting towards a Heathrow departure gate, cradling the demo PC in my arms, with the words ‘Gate Closing’ next to our scheduled flight number. Dave (Silver, Elixir Studios director] showed impressive pace for aman who'd been up coding for the previous two nights. None of which

this | asked Eidos to let us have

a private demonstration room at

the back of their stand and they graciously gave us one. In total Demis [Hassabis, Elixir Studios founder] gave 45 half-hour demonstrations. Although gruelling, it was incredibly rewarding and instructive. If you're honest, you admit that working so close to something makes it hard for you to step back and see what you've actually got, Seeing your game excite hard-bitten journalists is inspiring.

As with most European developers, the hardest part of the show was persuading US journalists to sit up and notice your game. | think it's fair to say that the American market is very introspective (Deer Hunter, anyone?) and difficult to reach. Of the four million units [the LIK-coded] Theme Park shifted, only ten per cent sold to the US.

The biggest disappointment for me was that | had only an hour to look around the show. I'm always desperate to see what's out there, to see what | can look forward to playing in the near future. Of the games that 1 saw, you couldn't help but be amazed by the demo of Metal Gear Solid 2. Huge crowds of people gathered around to see it. Above all else it was

EDGE ^H

staying in the same hotel as

us. Gary Carr was lead artist on Theme Hospital, and he and Demis reminisced about old Bullfrog days. When Demis first got to Bullfrog as a fresh-faced 15-year-old they used to share the same room, and Gary used to wind him up mercilessly. He's a great bloke: irreverent and cheeky, and a lot of fun to spend time with. Their new game, Startopia, looks great, and they had a good show.

My favourite experience of the show involved being invited to dinner with the UK managing director of a large publisher and ended up drinking tequila slammers at 2am. | tried to sneak off and catch a cab, when | felt a hand on my shoulder. “Where the fuck do you think you're going?" shouted the MD. “Get back in here and drink more tequila!”

When we returned home we found out that PC Format, the UK's biggest PC leisure magazine, had made Republic: The Revolution its game of the show. The team was thrilled, and the overall press response was incredibly positive.

As ever, this won't concern us, as

we know there's a huge amount

of work to be done and a lot

of die still to be rolled.

in

Elite revolutionised gaming with its 3D graphics, expansive game world and balanced blend of space trading and combat, transforming the lives of young programmers lan Bell and David Braben in the process. Edge traces the story

of its development, and how it was nearly never published

hen someone unfamiliar comes knocking on your door at ten о’ clock in the evening dripping with rain and weary after travelling the 300 miles from Liverpool to Cambridgeshire, you know you are in the presence of an obsessive, Questions including: ‘In which whole game universe?’ only serve to re- establish the weird world of fandom which of Elite, must occasionally warp into. Elite spawned the first ever Internet user group, and eventually docked on to 17 separate formats. The game established Braben and Bell as coding heroes to the next generation of programmers. It also brought them early fame, extensive news coverage and an amount of money no number of narcotic runs between Wolf Il and Lesi could have garnered. The Elite

the summer holidays when | was at university,” reflects Braben. “1 was 19 and lan 20. | wanted to do a 3D space game since time began and | had a little Acorn Atom PC that was largely built at home — I'd already programmed this 3D expanding star field which included a few spaceships.” Though Braben and Bell have since fallen out over the rights to the Elite brand, he is early friendship: “lan was doing Maths

and | Physics. When | saw his BBC Micro it was like, wow. We got really excited about programming and at that point he was already coding a game called Freefall.”

Раа ТЬ ЪТ"

have been planning а 3D space game on the Atom at the time,” he tells Edge. “Peter and later Exile for the BBC Micro, was talking about a space trading game. It was the obvious thing to attempt.” After lengthy a 3D space combat game began to emerge. It would be called The Elite. Revolutionary vector maths, huge areas of space to did not satisfy the two Cambridge undergraduates. "It felt very empty," continues Braben. "When you played it for a bit it felt pointiess. To make it a satisfying experience we had to have some motivation. That's where the trading game came from." Ironically, both Braben and Bell agonised over this aspect for a long time, "We were both afraid that it would actually be a boring component. But in a sense it gave you the contrast - the relief in between the tense combat."

The game was rebranded as Elite and the real grit and grind of producing the expansive and unique game universe really

began. "I suppose it was the real bedroom coding scenario," recalls Braben. "We each worked separately on different sections and then amended sections by fixing or tuning." Working in tandem speeded up the process yet the dangers of replicating key code had to be studiously prevented. "We were just very disciplined about keeping records of what we changed," he continues.

The game naturally pushed the BBC Micro to its limits and the headache of compressing all the data down to 22K proved a constant struggle. Yet Bell recalls that first magical moment when he knew he had something special: “It was the first time when | tested the movement and rotation routines together with the tactics code and actually saw some Vipers moving in ЗЮ – that was special." Though Braben always considered Elite more of a hobby than a business venture, the toll of long nights at the keyboard did begin to eclipse his Cambr idge studyit iJ. “| delivered the exams,” he ruefully tells Edge.

Elite's success is now well established. Bell estimates that some 600,000 copies were eventually sold. The game was released in 1984, cost £15 — expensive for the time — and went into a production run of an unprecedented 50,000 copies (only Revs had previously managed to sell 30,000 units). The national press soon picked up on the phenomenon and both authors employed an agent. Yet early code had been turned down by some of the big players of the early 'BOs. "I first submitted Elite to Thorn EMI in London, and in a letter which | still have they said they didn't want to publish it," explains Braben. "To be honest it was one of those moments when

Front View

Bell's recollection of the genesis of Elite is somewhat different: "David claims to

BBC Micro version only: the elusive Generation ship (right) was only seen under certain conditions

EDGE #88 153 >

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| thought, ту God, they might be right. broke every conceivable convention. videogame industry. Who would want to play a game which had no recognisable goal and committed the blasphemy of having no points total? “The reasons they cited were all true," concedes Braben, “But ironically they would turn out to be the strengths of the game." Among the criticisms levelled at Elite were that it was too long, required save wasn't colourful enough.

Undeterred, Braben and Beil returned to their task of studying by day and programming by night. A few other publishers were tentatively approached exclamations so common among gamers went to Acomsoft and fired up the game on their BBC Micros. We instantly had a crowd. It was two-deep within minutes because of the open-plan arrangement. | knew then there was no question as to whether they were going to publish it,” remembers completely happy with every single even more extensive game back in '83. on all versions originally numbered two to the power of АВ — literally hundreds of thousands of billions. “Ridiculous numbers

want too much of that sort of thing.” narcotics was also a potential sticking point with publishers — Thorn EMI had emphatically said so in its earlier rejection letter to Braben. Acorn eventually came round to the idea after much persuasion, but the potential controversy of buying and selling narcotics for a profit would hang over the team until the first sales figures were returned. The inclusion of such elements are tame by today's standards, and Elite can at least be defended on the grounds that a moral choice must be made. “The idea was that you could get a much

replies Braben, “but, of course, you've got the downside of police intervention,” Acornsoft must also be credited with a great deal of the praise for the early impact of the game. A competition was devised based оп the concept of becoming the best - the Elite. The competition was run at the end of each month after release, for six months. Results were published in the most popular games magazines. The play-off between the six winners went on to the grand final at the Acorn User Show. Not only was it the first home videogame- related competition of its time, but more importantly it became an early anti-piracy

when | was at university. | was 19 and lan 20. | really wanted tc do a space trading game. It was the obvious thing to attempt”

at the way the competition prevented lost revenues to the pirates. “It was very interesting actually, chatting to people who had entered. | asked them, ‘Did you buy the game?'. 'Erm, no,’ they said, ‘but when | realised | was in with a chance | thought, right, | can do better than that’. They went out and bought the game just to get the entry card."

Channel 4 News quickly picked up on the phenomenon. An experimental starfield with vector graphics had suddenly become national news and was being played by just about every teacher and child who had access to a BBC Micro. One story suggests that the then ITN News editor went down to the news room and found nearly every journalist playing Elite on their terminals. Braben replays the scene: ""What the hell's going on?' asks the editor. 'Don't worry, we're just playing a game’. ‘No, why is everybody playing the same game?

This is а news item in its own right!"

The report was broadcast at peak time, and Braben acknowledges the boost it gave the game: “Both lan and | were looking embarrassing in our student attire, but we got some brilliant quotes from it. Peter Warlock, who was then the editor of PCN magazine, said, ‘It's the best game since... it's the best game ever!" That was really nice. He didn't imagine it being bettered in the sense of the impact it had."

EDGE #55

When asked about the fortune made on the back of one of the most influential videogames ever, Braben remains predictably quarded. "It went from hardly having two pennies to rub together to talking about potentially very big money,” he says. "Although people don't realise it's actually a long time before the money actually followed on." In a brave and perspicacious move both Braben and Bell kept a firm hold on the Elite brand. The move would prove to be a foresighted business decision. "We gave Acom the rights to just the BBC Micro platform," recalls Braben. "They didn't realise we were serious about it, because I withheld

not just the garne rights but the film rights too. | think that they had not realised quite how valuable the other platform rights would be."

Though the popularity of Elite seems not to have come as a huge shock to the two authors, the sudden media attention and change in lifestyle did take some adjusting to. "You see these programmes on TV about lottery wins and how people can't handle the changes in lifestyles," ventures Braben. "There's truth in that. Elite was like a lottery win because although we had worked hard, it was still a hobby. It was never a money-driven thing. It eventually caused a rift.”

The rather unconventional fame which came after Elite still remains with the two coders. Bell dedicates a Web site to the game, and is more than happy to indulge anyone still interested

— in queries about the space dredgers or

how to avoid witch space. Braben, too, is sometimes uncomfortable with the attention over a 16-year-old videogame: "| was at a party a fortnight ago when it’s a bizarre feeling. Then two other people wanted it. As far as parties go its an honour but it does begin to separate you off from the other people there.”

It is unlikely that fanatics turning up on either programmers' doorsteps to discuss the finer points of this space trade game will

ever really go away. The game was played by too many people for too many hours and at such a formative time for it to fade away into obscurity. One frightening thought is that Elite probably affected

a huge proportion of the population

at some stage and in some way. As Braben acknowledges: “So many people approach me and say, ‘| failed my exams because of you’. But more say, ‘I got into the

indusiry because of you'."

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“ 156 >

FAQ

Toby Gard

what some have termed the new wave of game development personalities, Toby Gard is still hard at work on PC action adventure Galleon.

D erhaps the most recognisable face of

What was the first videogame you played? Pong. | was about eight, | think.

What was the first computer you owned? A Nascom.

What was the first thing you ever created on a computer? A text adventure based on Robin Hood.

What was your first job in the industry, and what was the first thing you ever designed? An artist at Core Design. The first thing was some kind of pants boulder sprite for BC Racers, | would imagine.

What's your favourite game ever? Шта Underword. It was such an incredible leap forward in so many different ways, it would

somewhere between one and six hours a week. What's the first game you look for

when you walk into an arcade?

The Darkstalkers beat 'em up thingy.

Which game would you most

like to have worked on?

The one l'm making right now, but to be honest with you I'd rather just play it and miss out the work bit all together.

What, specifically, are you working

on at the moment with Galleon?

I'm making animations to allow characters to move seamlessly into position when they want to use objects. And I'm mucking around with the new features in our particle system.

What stage is the project at? We're getting towards being able to move fully around the levels, but they still don't work.

Which particular element of Galleon are you convinced will most impress gamers? The main character's movement.

"Development times are far too long. At this rate I'll only get another four or five games done before l'Il have to retire"

still be an astounding game now. Well, with a bit of a graphics overhaul.

What was the last game you played? Vampire: The Masquerade. | think it deserves a lot more than four out of ten.

How many hours a week do you actually spend playing games? It really depends on what l'm playing. | suppose

What new development in videogames would you most like to see?

Brain input for game creation so that you just have to visualise stuff in your head and it appears on the screen.

at annoys you about the industry?

development times are far too long. At this rate I'll only get another four or five games done before I'm old enough to retire.

What is the most expensive item that you have bought with a bonus? A new company.

What do you most enjoy about working Is the work is never boring.

Whose work do you most admire?

It has to be Miyamoto. His games are simply

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What's the best thing about being

known as the creator of Lara Croft?

That it stops me people referring to me as the artist who worked on BC Racers.

Tomb Raider movie to be like? Interesting.

How would you have treated it? | would have avoided any kind of romantic interest,

What sort of Lara do you think

Angelina Jolie will make?

She could be good. It's certainly a better choice than Anna Nicole Smith, who | heard was going to play the part for a while.

Which new platform are you most looking forward to? X-Box, because it's not difficult to develop for.

Put the following in the order you believe they will stack up in terms of popularity in two years' time: PS2, DC, X-Box, Dolphin. It's hard not knowing anything about the 'StarCube', so I'll leave that one out:

X-Box, PlayStation2, Dreamcast.

What's your take on mobile-phone gaming? | reckon it will be absolutely massive when the hardware starts getting decent.

|

Finally, synthesis or persistence? I'll just stick to confusion, | think.

TETT]

RESET

Where yesterday's gaming goes to have a lie down

Examining gaming history from Edge's perspective, five years ago this month

Issue 25, October 1995

1. Amok was one of the Scavenger games Edge was convinced was going to shake up the world back in "95... 2. ... as was Into The Shadows. Ultimately it Was а Case of ‘nice face, shame about...', etc 3. Was Lockheed Martin about to deliver Saturn 2? No

4. Probably the funniest thing ever to appear in Edge 5. EAs Bruce McMillan

ё. Namco's Rave Racer

In the days before Edge's annual ‘Playing The

Game’ supplements, dedicated to readers looking їо land

a joo in the Videogame industry, this issue must have come as something of a surprise, its cover adorned not with some fash render trom a new game or tech demo, out a still from the Central Office of Information's careers TV ad (hands up who still remembers it). Inside, the kes of Stimy's Dave Perry, Amazing Studio's Christian Robert, and, er, Virgin IE's Julian Rignall offered nuggets of wisdom to the mags readership. "And finally,” offered the former Newsfield and EMAP hack, "don't get

DID THEY REALLY SAY THAT? EA Canada's Bruce McMillan, senior VP of development (and the man behind FIFA): "My biggest concern about the

industry is that we're surrounding gameplay elements with a lot of fluff, And that scares me." Do you think he's still there?

DID EDGE REALLY SAY THAT? "If you've never heard of Scavenger, the chances are that

you will do soon.' Oh yes, Edge readers certainly did hear a lot more about the company that promised the Earth with its

technology. sputtered like knackered engines when it came

to delivering gameplay, and ended up filing а $100m lawsuit

against GT Interactive when the publisher finally lost faith.

TESTSCREENS (AND RATINGS) Wipeout (PS; 8/10), J-League Willing Eleven (PS; 7/10), Command & Gonguer (PC; 8/10), Philosoma (PS; 5/10), Zhadnost (300; 3/10), Space Hulk (3DO; 8/10).

US defence corp holds == key to Sega plans

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The industry's favourites from yesteryear. This month, Lost Toys’ Jeremy Longley talks footy

put off by failure." Cleany this was a man of his word. Elsewhere it was pretty much business as usual, with news of proposed Saturn 2 technology from US defence specialists Lockheed Martin (didn't happen), Sega's partnering with NVidia to provide top-hole PC versions of its hits (let's not go there), and word on Nintendo's recently launched Virtual Boy: ' shouldn't be forgotten that, with the Game Boy, the company successfully created a. new market for itself... You can never tell what Nintendo has up rs sieeve’. A certain diminutive balding magicians catchphrase springs to mind.

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Over the years, I've played many games

that I've really enjoyed, but only a few have had me coming back month after month, and the first game that did that was Kick Off 2. For me this is the most perfect sports game ever written, because rather than trying to mimic a real-world sport on a computer, they created essentially a new sport whose playing field was (in my case) an ST.

The ball control really had nothing to do with real football, and that was the thing that made it great — rather than make the players look like they were dribbling the ball while you just pressed the joystick, in KO2 ball control looked nothing like dribbling, but it was a hard skill that you

needed to master, just like the real thing.

Here was a title where you could train for weeks on а particular aspect of the gameplay, and feel that you меге a better player after it, Months into the game, we were still learning new techniques and new tricks and being proud to pull them off successfully. | can clearly remember play being interrupted several times by the morning sun streaming through the window and reflecting off my monitor.

Kick Off 2 really rewarded you for working hard at it, and it was many years before | found something else that pulled this off (when QuakeWorld arrived). | actually bought a £40 ST at а car boot sale i =

“ҮҮ: "| S E

six months ago just to play it again. 5

167

« 158 >

After reading your comments about Sega in your ЕЗ article, 1 felt | had to write. You said its show line-ups are 'consistently innovative, daring and extremely playable — so why aren't gamers listening?' The reason is simple. The gaming press is to blame. They've spent all their time focusing on Sony's PS2, constantly hyping it while being totally oblivious to the fact that Sega has been busy doing what it does best — producing great games. The DG line-up is looking very strona, with titles that are fun, freaky, cool and innovative, while all Sony is offering is sequels to the sequel to the sequel before that. If the gaming press had looked a little closer at the DC and realised that Sega had learnt from its past mistakes, the DC's sales would have doubled. If Sega goes down it will be a great loss to gaming and the industry. This time Sega is not to blame, it's down to the apathy shown by the press. Simon Tasker, via email

Sadly, there's only so much shouting Edge can do.

It seems tO me that PlayStation2 is in some danger of becoming the next Sega Satum - the kind of statements that are being made at the moment by prominent developers are eerily reminiscent of the criticisms of architecture and feature set that buried thirdparty support for the Sega machine, and | wonder if software for the machine will be so forthcoming once initial commitments are out of the way. X-Box, on the other hand, is looking very much the modern PlayStation. Could history be about to repeat itself? Joshua Evans, via email

But Sega did not have the brand strength going in to the 32bit era as Sony has approaching 12801, Having 70 million machines out there pushing with your logo is.one hell of a marketing tool.

Letters, Edge, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW

m | Communicate by post: Or email: | edge&futurenet.co.uk

| felt а ittie rankied at the snide editorial comment at the bottom of the first page of your June edition. For those of you who missed it, it smelt like ‘if Hideo Kojima can get off his butt and make dev tools, why don't you western developers stop your whining, get on your bikes and do something?’ Well, excuse us. | think | can speak for most of the western development community when | say that it's a bit rich for journalists to be giving purposeless and patronising advice like that.

Surely that's the producer's job.

Just to set the record straight here: Mr Kojima works for Konami, a vast company, where, if they wanted to, they could throw 30 to 100 programmers at a task building all the tools and libraries they could need, and feel little pain for their gain. Most of us in the industry would be lucky to find ourselves working in teams of between five and 20 people with perhaps an R&D/tech support team of up to five. To add to this, one wonders just how much co-operation Sony has really been extending to us Gaijin, specially since the Powers That Be recently admitted that alleged ‘features’ like ‘full- screen, no-processor-time antialiasing’ are, in fact, programming possibilities you have to come up with, on your own, from the bare metal upwards. Naturally, this is pretty much Business As Usual for my colleagues and myself working right now with the old PlayStation. Of course, from all the hype Sony and its friends have generated about the PS2, you'd have thought features like this were going to be hardware based, much as they worked on Dreamcast or the N64.

All of this of course takes time. N64 and Dreamcast already came with tools and libs so you didn't end up with the trouble the PS2 developers have encountered. And, yes, the only solution is

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more time and money. | mean, wake up, people. some of you shmoes might remember how cruddy (and yet promising) early 3D stuff was on the old PSX. Compare Metal Gear Solid with (God help us) Battle Arena Toshinden. It's amazing what а difference a few years makes.

Arash Mohebbi, via email

Though it's risking sounding even more like a producer, this must be asked: do id workers grumble about lack of staff? Is id looking to bolster its head count so that it might assemble a team comparable in size to those of Japanese codeshops? No. Tha small, Texas-based team simply gets on with what it does best: creating first-rate videogames. There's probably a lesson in there somewhera.

When the Sega Saturn was released, few developers supported it. In some part this was due to the awkward architecture of the machine. | don't remember Edge complaining about whingers then, so it seems a little two-faced to be berating developers for complaining about PlayStation2. Konami may well have the resources to develop their own middleware, but surely smaller software houses don't. Sony spent a lot of time wooing developers to the original PlayStation, ensuring the machine was utilised to the full and that codina for it was easy, but their attitude now seems arrogant and complacent. Still, Edge has piqued my curiosity. What are the differences between PS2 and the other machines? What problems are developers having? What does the promised 'middleware' do? Is this a Microsoft-esque attempt to dominate the games market by making PS2 code difficult (and therefore not cost effective) to port? Could it be designed to show up weak spots in other hardware? Sony knows how to support

EB6's intro, encouraging developers to investigate their own solutions to PS2 problems, was both 'purposeless and patronising', says Arash Mohebbi

developers, so its action (or lack of it) is deliberate. Sab Bond, via email

You're saying Sony wants PS2 to fail in the eyes of developers? It would hardly be preaching the middleware message were that the case.

Jake's letter (E86) missed the fundamental point behind “ће synthesis model’. This type of methodology is essential if three-dimensional videogames are to massively increase the complexity of game environments. It all comes down to memory limitations (points raised in Jez San's speech at Develop "99 (E75) and in Total Recall (E36). Graphics processing power and CPU power now massively outstrip the performance of memory, while there will never ba sufficient memory available to accurately model complex environments without imposing limits on the playing area and the players interaction therein. The added benefit of using processing power to procedurally generate the game world is that the environments themselves can become far more dynamic and less repetitive, which will not only provide greater graphical ‘reality’, but could also provide far-reaching gameplay potential.

There are some game developers out there that have realised the limitations of the traditional methodologies (witness Hepublic's infinite polygon engine or the RTDAT technology utilised in Messiah). | find it somewhat heartening that Sony have anticipated the inherent potential in these techniques and have designed the PS2 from the ground up to support them. It is because of this that | believe the PS2 has the most promising potential of any of the next-generation game boxes. X-Box's geometry prowess is relatively specific and locked into the rendering pipeline, so that even if

the X-chip lives up to its specs (it is yet to exist in silicon form) it will not be as well suited to pushing dynamic geometry, a limitation of the NVidia chips.

The Р52 ls a challenging development platform, but given that developers will need to adopt PS2- like strategies if they intend to push the envelope of 3D performance, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The PS2 architecture is no bodge job (unlike the Saturn), rather the first attempt by a consumer manufacturer to encapsulate the ideas espoused in Diefendorff and Duby's concept of a ‘dynamic media machine’.

Finally, an NVidia-class GPU coupled with a decent CPU and a hatful of RAM does not outclass Sony's superconsole, something that's well illustrated in the numerous benchmarks of GeForce? cards available on the World Wide Web, and probably why Microsoft pushed back the release of X-Box until late 2001.

Gary Moran, Birmingham Perhaps gamers don't want a 'dynamic media machine'. Come January, it will be clear.

| rarely play computer games, but my husband does and | have seen some of the more violent titles. While | understand that, like other types of entertainment, censorship of games is a complicated and controversial subject, | think it would Ба naive in the extreme to deny a possible link between games and behaviour. Society is rapidly adjusting to the idea that there is a direct link between images cf abnormally thin women and the incidence of anorexia amongst young girls. Our consumerist society is driven by advertising — another way in which the images we see affect the way we behave. If you accept the above notions, surely it is not too simplistic to

suppose that the repeated playing of games which reward destructive or aggressive behaviour has the potential to seep into the subconscious mind of the player, and thus affect their own behaviour?

| am not suggesting that all who play these games are going to become axe-wielding murderers — | have read women's magazines regularly and haven't starved myself once, but I am very aware that they change my perception of the way | look. If you are young, with a developing identity and little in the way of role models, | feel that these images will have a much stronger impact. Along with Stephen Dinkeldein, | think it is a matter of great concern, and one that should not = be dismissed in the name of huge profit. However, | suspect it will. Amanda McPherson, via email And we suspect you're right. But thanks for sharing your views.

Idiot! | can't believe I've been so stupid. Yes, that's right, I'm one of those simple-minded fools who, despite decades of gaming experiance, backed the loser in the last round of console wars.

Two years ago | spent £150 on an NTSC Nintendo 64 when everybody eise was backing Sony PlayStation. As you can imagine, the last 24 months have been barren indeed.

The only really top-quality games my machine has been able to offer me in this time are Mario 64, Blast Corps, GoldenEye, Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo Kazooie, F-Zero 64, Turok 1 & 2, PilotWings 64, Mario Kart 64, 1080" Snowboarding, Wavehace 64, Zelda, Jet Force Gemini, DK 64 and ISS 64.

What's more, my machine is now obsolete, All the future offers is Perfect Dark, Excitebike 64, Majora's Mask, Banjo Tooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day,

‘It’s a bit rich for journalists to be giving developers purposeless and patronising advice. Surely that's the producers job’

“159 >

Mario Tennis 64, Mickey's Speedway Hacing, Turok 3, Dinosaur Planet and Earthbound 64.

When all this is put together it amounts to little more than a few thousand hours of entertainment af a quality unmatched by any other system ever. If only | had known that owning a console was about having the highest-selling machine with the vastest range of shoddy, second-rate titles rather than about playing good games, | would never have made the mistake in the first place. Please help me to choose the winning alternative this time around. Joseph Poole, via email

= = | * гъ ie аа | чү! i MI ис FF Г ont JUST 8 Second ul ol it ms ES PNT, MAM d

While everyone will agree that female representation in computer games seems al the moment to be а е, er... top heavy, non-virtual representation seems to be a littie on the slim side. When will Edge run a feature on the key female fiqures in the industry today, on those who have played a vital role in the past, and on those who may affect gaming development in the future? And please — no lazy features on a certain Ms Groft and her real-life representatives.

Shane Dillon, via email

Damn, There goes tne Nell McAndrew poster- supplement idea out of the window. А serious look into the issue is currently under discussion.

Is there any truth in the rumour that Sony wil ship only enough PS2s to cover the pre-orders that shops will soon start taking? Having been fortunate to buy computers, consoles and games since the BBC Micro B, I find the idea that Sony will not meet demand for what must be the biggest development in their history not only ludicrous but suicidal. This must be another ruse by the games

Perfect Dark. Just one reason why Joseph Poole remains content with Nintendo-branded gaming hardware

shops to force customers into placing orders. thus guaranteeing business on October 26 and also forcing those who would normally wait till the initial price comes down to part with their cash. ! have decided that the PS2 will be my next-gen console, but | am in no rush to join the queue ~ besides, nothing of any real quality has come

out to stop me from playing /SS Pro Evolution. Dino Karapittis, via email

With recent advances in the connection speeds through Internet ISPs occasioned from ADSL. it may now actually become acceptable [and perhaps moral?) for developers to churn out endiess sequels and arcade conversions. Arcade games, with their three-minute-per-play ethos, are ideal vehicles through which the games industry can enter the market for downloadable ‘loan’ software. For so long consumers have berated the lack of imagination involved in arcade conversions. multiplayer aspects and other seemingly random alternative game modes (what was Tekken 3's volleyball about?) doing little to attract all but the most ardent arcade fans to the genre.

ADSL and broadband will permit the rapid transferral of large amounts of data to the consumer every time he/she wishes to play in а similar manner to which American companies intend to supply word processing software and virus checkers, inter alia. Tha companies providing arcade conversions could utilise such technology to deliver arcade conversions to the consumer for a small fee each time, coupled possibly with a larger fea for the permanent download (ie, purchase) of the software. The small fee would mimic the arcade prices, which many consumers have proved they are willing to pay, and would

appease those gamers who complain that such conversions often lack the durability and thus value for money of tities such as the Final Fantasy senes Microsoft's X-Box, Sega's Dreamcast and Sony's PlayStation? would all be ideal target platforms if compatible technology was available, Sony perhaps taking the ingenious step of supplying cheap, ageing games for its backwards-compatible PS2 through the Internet. it might also alleviate the stresses of the 20-something user group who have recently revealed the desire for shorter games. ‘Uncle Den’, via email

The article ‘Ever decreasing circles?’ in E87 tried to plot the future of the DC. In my opinion the DC will ultimately be а failure because sega has made the same mistake as Nintendo: it has produced a machine with а second-generation storage medium. The decision 1o release the N64 with cartridges left its sales lagging far behind other consoles. If Sega had released the DC using DVD technology it would have saved a lot of money in development costs (instead of designing thair own CD format). It could have then been sold as a games machine/DVD player.

In Japan the initial PS2 software quality was poor and hence sold relatively poorly, However, at the same time sales of DVDs rose dramatically. If the DC had been released with a DVD drive and the quality of games already released It would have been a success, The future does not bode well for Sega. Unlike Nintendo they do пої have the Pokémon franchise and Game Boy to keep them afloat while they rectify the error. | believe they will eventually have turn to software development and coin-op manufacture Paul Huxley, via email

TEKKEN EALL

‘When will Edge run a feature on the key female figures in the industry, those who have played a vital role in the past and those who may affect it in the future?’

‘Uncle Den’ questions the value of ‘seemingly random’ bonus modes such as Tekken 3's volleyball subgame to anyone other than the hardcore gamer

< 160

Issue 89 on sale September 11

462 >

Next month: mobile phone gaming. The future of electronic entertainment? Or the biggest white elephant of all time? Edge takes a look behind the hype.

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PREVIEWED Time Splitters (Р52)

Lotus Team Challenge (PS2) international Superstar Soccer (PS2 No One Lives Forever (PC

Mr Driller ? [ee gue 0)

(PS2)

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REVIEWED

Jet Set Radio (DC)

Virtua Tennis (DC)

TOCA World Touring Cars (PS)

Tok YO Highwa ү R attle 2 ( DG